Acclaimed Polish poet to visit SJU March 18-20

Poet Adam Zagajewski, a 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature nominee, will be at Saint John's University March 18-20 to meet with faculty and students, visit classes and give a reading of his poetry.  

His reading is at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, at the Pottery Studio, SJU. Although the event is free and open to the public, seating is limited — please RSVP to Lori Moe at [email protected].

Zagajewski, often referred to as the poet of 9/11, developed an American audience after his poem, "Try to Praise the Mutilated World," was published on the back page of The New Yorker magazine in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Though the poem was written over a year before the attacks, it became a powerful statement reminding people to see the beauty in a flawed world. The poem has been described as "the most memorable verse statement on the tragedy, and arguably the best known poem of the last 10 years," according to Matthew Kaminski of Newsweek in 2011.

Zagajewski provided an optimism that many grieving Americans needed following the attacks. Instead of preaching revenge, he unified readers by telling them to remember the events but also remember the greatness of human character as well.

Zagajewski also represents a group of Polish poets that used a journalistic style to make poetry relevant and readable after the ravages of World War II.  This style was part of the Polish New Wave of poets that focused on giving a voice to a culture transformed by the experiences of World War II and the rise of communism.

His poems and essays have been translated from his native Polish to many languages, including English.  

He has taught classes at the School of Literature and Arts at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, his alma mater. He is a member of the faculty at the University of Houston and the University of Chicago.  

In addition to being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, he has received many international awards including a Prix de la Liberté in 1987, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1992, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2004.  In 2013, he was awarded the Zhongkun International Poetry Prize, considered China's Nobel Prize in poetry.   

His visit is being sponsored by the CSB and SJU English Department, the Saint John's University Chair of Critical Thinking, the Pottery Studio and the College of Saint Benedict Literary Arts Institute.