Who’s Wislawa Szymborska?

Who’s Wislawa Szymborska?

Sep 15

If you don’t know this author, you should. My friend Laura introduced me to her a few years ago and to be honest, I had never even heard the name before. I had no idea what I was missing. Evidently, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996 and I can clearly see why. The most interesting thing about her poetry is that it was originally published in a Slavic language and still retains it’s beauty translated into English. I would feel fortunate to write one thing in a single language that came across so fluently. I highly recommend picking up her “Poems New and Collected” edition.  The phrasing has a simple elegance about it that really doesn’t compare to anyone else and she has a way of sneaking up on you with a punch in the end.  My personal favorite is her poem “The Joy of Writing”, which you can read here on the Nobel Prize website.