Manchester Polish Poetry Festival celebrates one of city’s many mother tongues

Festival organiser Mark Pajak completed a residency in Krakow UNESCO City of Literature (image: Tomasz Wiech)

Manchester Metropolitan University is to host the Manchester Polish Poetry Festival.

The Radosc Pisania (October 30-31) is a collaboration between the University – as one of the Commissioning Partners for Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, the British Council and Krakow UNESCO City of Literature.

It is the latest in a series of bilingual and multilingual poetry events celebrating Manchester’s UNESCO City of Literature status and seeking to widen access to poetry in some of Manchester’s many mother tongues.

Award-winning poet Mark Pajak, who is an alumnus of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, has curated the festival in response to his recent creative residency in Krakow UNESCO City of Literature.

A festival that will bring together Manchester’s Polish and non-Polish communities, to celebrate a country with a strong literary tradition that is both ancient and contemporary.

The festival will bring together UK writers and some of Poland’s most exciting contemporary poets for a programme of readings and writing workshops.

The festival’s name means ‘The Joy of Writing’ in Polish and is taken from a poem by Wisława Szymborska – Polish poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize.

Jess Edwards, Head of English at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “International partnership and exchange is one of the many benefits to Manchester’s membership of the UNESCO Creative Cities network, where we’ve joined 27 other Cities of Literature, including Krakow.

“Our event seeks to strengthen ties between our two Cities of Literature, and in doing so to celebrate the poetry of one of our multilingual city’s major mother language communities.” 

Establish relationships

Mark Pajak said: "In the 1980s my father changed our family name from ‘Pajak’ to ‘Thomson’ because of the general anti-foreign feeling he was experiencing. Now with Brexit looming – that anti-foreign feeling (particularly aimed at Polish expats) seems to be prevalent again.

“So, a desire to react against this was the impetus for The Radość Pisania: Manchester Polish Poetry Festival. A festival that will bring together Manchester’s Polish and non-Polish communities, to celebrate a country with a strong literary tradition that is both ancient and contemporary. In doing so, we will establish and maintain links between writers and translators working within Poland and the UK.”

Events at the Manchester Polish Poetry Festival include:

• Launch Reception and Poetry Reading – Wine reception followed by a reading from some of Poland and the UK’s most exciting contemporary poets including Weronika Lewandowska, Michał Sobol and Bohdan Piasecki. The event will be introduced by prize-winning poet Mark Pajak.
• Poetry Writing and Translation Workshops – A special day of creative writing and translation workshops run by guest poets from Poland including Lewandowska, Sobol, Piasecki and Paweł Łyżwiński.
• Celebrating Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska and Southern Cemetery Tour – Manchester Green Badge Tour Guide Emma Fox leads a tour, concluding in a special celebration of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, the “Polish Sappho”.  The celebration includes a specially commissioned poem written by Manchester poet Tania Hershman. Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (born in Kraków 1891, died in Manchester 1945) is a legend of Polish poetry. However, her poetry is little known outside of her native Poland, even in Manchester where she is buried.

Multilingual poetry expertise

The Manchester Polish Poetry Festival enhances Manchester Metropolitan University’s strong reputation in poetry and the spoken word.

The Manchester Writing School is led by Poet Laureate Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE, and is also home to fellow award-winning poets Dr Helen Mort and Andrew McMillan.

The University will open the region’s first Poetry Library in 2020, and will include poetry collections in some of Manchester’s major mother languages.

The Writing School hosted a Mushaira (Urdu poetry performance) earlier this year in conjunction with Manchester Muslim Writers, whose leader Zahid Hussain has recently joined Manchester Writing School as a Visiting Teaching Fellow.  

Manchester joined UNESCO’s worldwide Creative Cities network as a City of Literature in 2017. A consortium including the City Council, the universities, Manchester Literature Festival and the city’s writers, publishers and literary organisations delivered the successful bid.

The city joins others including Baghdad, Dublin, Barcelona, Prague, Melbourne, and Reykjavik in the global network.