MAGDALENA KICIŃSKA – journalist and poet. Graduate of the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw Film School and the Polish School of Reportage, where she teaches. Editor-in-chief of ‘Pisma. Magazine of Opinions’ from 2019 to 2024. Winner of the Grand Press 2017 in the interview category. Author of books, including ‘Pani Stefa’ and the poetry volume ‘Means of Transport’. Winner of awards, including the Literary Award of the City of Warsaw and the Poznań Literary Award – S. Barańczak Scholarship. Born and raised in Lublin, she lives in Warsaw (and sometimes in Sopot).
MAŁGORZATA LEBDA – author of six books of poetry, including the award-winning volumes ‘Matecznik’ and ‘Sny uckermärkerów’ (Gdynia Literary Award 2019). Her latest volume entitled Mer de Glace (2021) was awarded the Wislawa Szymborska Prize (2022). Her books of poetry have been published in translation into Czech (translated by Bogdan Trojak), Italian (translated by Marina Ciccarini), Serbian (translated by Biserka Rajčić), Ukrainian (translated by Yuri Zawadski), Slovenian (translated by Katarina Šalamun-Biedrzycka), and Danish (translated by Frej Larsen and Paweł Partyka). More translations are in the pipeline. Doctor of Humanities. Columnist. Cultural animator. Editor. Researcher interested in the relationship between visuality and literature; the figure of the body; somaesthetics; ecopoetics and fungi. Ultramarathon runner (in September 2021, she covered a distance of 1113 kilometres along the Vistula River while carrying out the activist-poetry project ‘Reading Water’). Her debut novel, ‘Greedy’, was published in 2023 by the Znak publishing house. She grew up in the Beskid village of Żeleźnikowa Wielka. She lives on a windy ridge in Beskid Sądecki.
