Jacek Dehnel

Jacek Maria Dehnel (born 1 May 1980 in Gdańsk, Poland) is a Polish poet, writer, translator and painter.

His first collection of poems was the last book recommended by Polish Nobel Prize Laureate, Czesław Miłosz. Dehnel has published his poems in various literary magazines, including Kwartalnik Artystyczny, Studium, Przegląd Artystyczno-Literacki, Topos, Tytuł, Undergrunt. He also works for an internet literary portal Nieszuflada.

Between September 2006 and July 2009, he was a co-host of cultural programme ŁOSssKOT broadcast on TVP1 (together with musician Tymon Tymański and journalist Maciej Chmiel).

Dehnel has translated poetry of such poets as Osip Mandelshtam, W. H. Auden, Mary Oliver – unpublished, and Philip Larkin, George Szirtes – published. He has also rendered in Polish lyrics for songs by Ástor Piazzolla.

He has been awarded literary prizes that include the Kościelski Award in 2005, the Paszport Polityki in 2007 and the cultural award of the city of Gdańsk Splendor Gedanesis in 2009. He received five nominations for Poland's most prestigious literary prize – the Nike Award: Balzakian (2009), Ekran kontrolny (2010), Saturn (2012); Matka Makryna (2015) and Krivoklat (2017) as well as two nominations for the Angelus Award for Lala (2007) and Saturn (2012) and the 2014 Wisława Szymborska Award for his book of poems Języki obce ("Foreign Languages").

In 2015, he was awarded Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis.

In 2017, he co-wrote the screenplay to the award-winning experimental animated biographical drama film Loving Vincent about the life of painter Vincent van Gogh, and in particular, the circumstances of his death.

Personal life

He lived and worked in Warsaw, from March 2020 in Berlin. He is gay, which is reflected in his literary works. In 2018, he married his long-term partner, translator and historian Piotr Tarczyński, in Wandsworth Town Hall in London. Dehnel and his partner publish works under the female pseudonym Maryla Szymiczkowa. In 2019, he undertook apostasy. Dehnel and Tarczyński left Warsaw for Berlin in 2021.

Books

Prose Kolekcja ("The Collection"), (a collection of short stories), Marpress, Gdańsk, 1999 Rynek w Smyrnie, (a collection of short stories), W.A.B., Warsaw, 2007 Lala, (a novel), W.A.B., Warsaw, 2006 Lala. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Oneworld Publications, London 2018, Balzakiana,(a collection of four mininovels) W.A.B., Warsaw, 2008 Saturn. Czarne obrazy z życia mężczyzn z rodziny Goya, W.A.B., Warsaw (English translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, published by Dedalus Books in 2013), 2011 Kosmografia, czyli trzydzieści apokryfów tułaczych, accompanying an exhibition of 15th-century maps in the Warsaw National Library, Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw (a collection of short stories), 2012 Młodszy księgowy, (a collection of columns on books and reading), W.A.B., Warsaw, 2013 Matka Makryna ("Mother Makryna"), W.A.B, 2014 Tajemnica domu Helclów, (co-written with his partner Piotr Tarczyński), Znak literanova, 2015 Dziennik Roku Chrystusowego, W.A.B., 2015 Nowy Tajny Detektyw, NCK and Fundacja Picture Doc, 2015 Proteusz, czyli o przemianach. Spacerownik po historii Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, Serenissima, Warsaw, 2015 Krivoklat, Znak, 2016 Rozdarta zasłona, (co-written with Piotr Tarczyński) Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak, 2016 Mrs Mohr Goes Missing, (co-written with Piotr Tarczyński and translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones) Bloomsbury, 2019 Ale z naszymi umarłymi, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2019 Łabędzie, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2023

Poetry Żywoty równoległe ("The Parallel Lives"), Zielona Sowa, Kraków, 2004 Wyprawa na południe ("An Expedition Southwards"), Teatr Mały w Tychach, Tychy, 2005 Wiersze ("Poems"), Lampa i Iskra Boża, Warsaw, 2006 Brzytwa okamgnienia, Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, 2007 Ekran kontrolny, Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, 2009 Rubryki strat i zysków, Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, 2011 Języki obce ("Foreign Languages"), Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, 2013 Seria w ciemność, Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, 2016 Najdziwniejsze (The strangest), Wrocław, Biuro Literackie, 2019 Bruma, Cracow, Wydawnictwo a5, 2022

Translations

Philip Larkin Zebrane (Collected: The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows), Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, 2008 Edmund White Hotel de Dream, Biuro Literackie, Wrocław (with Piotr Tarczyński), 2012 Francis Scott Fitzgerald Wielki Gatsby (The Great Gatsby), Znak, Kraków, 2013

Other

Six Polish Poets (as a poet and as an editor), 2009. Arc Publications, London. Il vetro è sottile. Poeti polacchi contemporanei tradotti da poeti (as a poet and editor with Matteo Campagnoli), 2012. Bellinzona, Casagrande.