Jacek Maria Dehnel (born 1 May 1980 in Gdańsk, Poland) is a Polish poet, writer, translator and painter.
Life and work
He graduated from the Stefan Żeromski High School No. 5 in Gdańsk, where he excelled in Humanities. Dehnel studied at the University of Warsaw's College of Inter-Area Individual Studies In the Humanities and Social Sciences (Polish: Kolegium Międzyobszarowych Indywidualnych Studiów Humanistycznych i Społecznych) and graduated from the Faculty of Polish Language and Literature, where he obtained a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree, writing a thesis on Stanisław Barańczak's translations of Philip Larkin's works.[1][2]
His first collection of poems was the last book recommended by Polish Nobel Prize Laureate, Czesław Miłosz.[citation needed] 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).
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 GdańskSplendor 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").
He lived and worked in Warsaw, from March 2020 in Berlin.[5][6] He openly identifies as gay, which is reflected in his literary works. In 2018, he married his long-term partner, translator and historian Piotr Tarczynski, in Wandsworth Town Hall in London. Dehnel and his partner publish works under the female pseudonym Maryla Szymiczkowa.[7] In 2019, he undertook apostasy.[8] Dehnel and Tarczynski left Warsaw for Berlin in 2021.[9]
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. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Oneworld Publications, London 2018, ISBN978-1786073570[10]
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
