Host: Kalina Izabela Zioła & Jerzy Grupiński.
Musical setting by skald and translator Dawid Sulikowski.

Jerzy Grupiński is a poet, literary critic, cultural animator and editor. He was born in 1938 in Wronki and attended to the Małe Seminarium oo. Franciszkanów in Jarocin as well as to the High School in Czarnków and Szamotuły, where he passed the high school diploma in 1956. In 1964 he graduated as a Polish Philologist from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He worked as a Polish teacher in Oborniki Wielkopolskie (1958-1959), Słupsk (1964-1968) and Poznań (from 1969).

In 1970 he founded the Literary Club at the Zamek Culture Centre in Poznań (Centrum Kultury Zamek), where he promoted young artists, edited almanachs "The Castle Literary Sheets" as well as the magazine "Cultural Protocol". Since 2006 the Literary Club has been running at the "Dąbrówka" Culture Center in Poznań. Jerzy Grupiński continues to edit and publish the quarterly magazine "Cultural Protocol" (www.pisarzepolscy.pl). He was also the initiator of the nationwide poetry competitions such as "The Klemens Janicki's Laurel", "Green Feathers", "Young Feathers", "Halszka's Ring" and others. He was also a juror of numerous literary competitions and co-founder and vice-president of the Salon Artystyczny imienia Jackowskich in Pobiedziska as well as a member of the Polish Writers Union (1976-1990) - currently he is a member of the Polish Writers' Association.

As a poet he debuted in the "Głos Wielkopolski" newspaper (1963) and he is an author of the volumes of poems: "Shape of the Wave" (Warsaw 1969), "The Same Violence" (Poznań 1972), "At Home like in a Calendar" (Poznań 1976), "Create the World - or Yourself" (Poznań 1979), "Wielkopolska's Album" (Poznań 1981), "The Scale and the Lip" (Poznań 1984), "Still Night" (Poznań 1990), "Poems to Love" (Wrocław 1991, Poznań 1995), "Social Protocol" (Poznań 1994), "A Method for Insomnia" (Poznań 1996), "Your Name" (Poznań 1999), "Ten Fingers" (Poznań 2009), "Temptation of the Saint Poet" (Sopot 2012), "Poznań - Poetic Walks Around the City and the Surrounding Area Close to my Heart" (Poznań 2017), "A Method for Butterflies" (Poznań 2018) as well as book for children "My City's Arms" (Poznań 1994). He published his works, among others, in magazines such as "Kultura", "Kresy", "W drodze", "Opcja", "Nurt", "Odra", "Poezja", "Akant". The poems have been translated into several languages, including English, Greek, Russian, Serbian, German, Chinese and Armenian. He is the winner of many literary awards, including Golden Frigate (Świnoujście 1970), honorary mention of the Słupsk Spring Poetry (Słupsk 1967), the Red Rose Poetry Competition (Gdańsk 1969), Ryszard Milczewski-Bruno's Award (Poznań 2000), XIII CEPAL Award at the International Literary Competition Center for Art Promotion in Thionville (France) for the poetry volume "A Method for Insomnia" illustrated by Zbigniew Kresowaty (2011), Main Prize at the XXXVI competition for the best poetry book of the year 2013 for the volume "Temptation of the Saint Poet" (2013) and the "Yeast" award of the "Akant" editors (2013). For the almanach "Arka" he received the award of the International Center of Translation and Research Poetry in Hong Kong (2005) and in 2013 he received the "Ianicius" - the Literary Award of Klemens Janicki for lifetime achievement and popularization of poetry.

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Photos: Agnieszka Bereta