Jan Polkowski (born 1953) is a poet and a prose writer. During the Communist years, he worked as a publisher and editor in the Polish underground press system. After Poland's regaining of independence in 1989, he was publisher and editor of the newspaper Czas Krakowski [The Kraków Times]. As a poet, Polkowski debuted in 1978 with several poems in the uncensored literary quarterly Zapis [The Record]. His first volume, To nie jest poezja [This is not Poetry], was printed two years later, in 1980, by the Niezależna Oficyna Wydawnicza NOWA [NOWA Independent Publishers], which makes him the only Polish poet to have debuted in the underground press system. His subsequent volumes were also printed by independent publishers: Oddychaj glęboko [Breathe Deeply (1981)], Ogień. Z notatek 1982-1983 [Fire. Personal Writings 1982-1983 (1983)], Drzewa [Trees (1986)]. Polkowski was interned at the imposition of martial law on 13 December 1981. Upon his release from prison in 1983, he went on to serve as editor of the underground social and literary magazine, Arka [The Ark]. In the same year, he won one of the most prestigious Polish literary prizes - the Geneva-based Kościelski Foundation Award. His first legally published volume, Elegie z Tymowskich Gór [Elegies from the Tymowskie Mountains (Znak)], came out in 1990 and contained a selection of pieces that had already appeared in print, as well as previously unpublished poems from the early period of his career. Several years of publishing silence ensued, after which Polkowski finally made his literary comeback in 2009 with Cantus, which volume won the Andrzej Kijowski Prize in 2010. He followed this up with two more collections: Cień [Shadow (2010)] and Glosy [Voices (2012)]. This latter publication won him the 'Orpheus' Konstanty Ildefons Galczyński Award for Poetry. In 2015, Polkowski published Gorzka godzina [The Bitter Hour], consisting of poems written in the village of Tymowa, where he had settled not long before. Another collection, Gdy Bóg się waha. Poezje 1977-2017 [When God Wavers. Poems 1977-2017], came out in 2017, after which several more books followed in quick succession: Pochód duchów [A Procession of Ghosts (1918)], Rozmowy z Różewiczem [Conversations with Różewicz (2018)], Lyżka ojca [My Father's Spoon (2021)], and Pomieszane języki [A Confusion of Tongues (2021)].In 2013, Polkowski debuted as a novelist with Ślady krwi. Przypadki Henryka Harsynowicza [Bloodstains. The Trials of Henryk Harsynowicz], which won the Identitas Award in 2014. A collection of his short prose pieces, Portier i inne opowiadania [The Janitor and Other Stories], was published in 2019, followed, a year later, by a volume of daily reflections, entitled Pandemia i inne plagi [The Pandemic and Other Plagues]. In 2014, Polkowski also published a collection of journalistic pieces, Polska, moja milośc [Poland, My Love], and in 2019, an autobiography in the form of a book-length interview conducted by Piotr Legutko, entitled Ryzyko bycia Polakiem [The Risk of Being Polish]. The present volume, Voices, has also been translated into German, Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian.
