Adam Zagajewski

Lvov, now Ucrania, 1945. Awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature in 2017, is one of the key voices of the european poetry of the last 50 years. His work is a claim of the power of the poetry to elevate the human experience above the daily life and the historical. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Cracovia, was a member of the group of poetry Now until 1975, and is one of the most brilliant poets of the so-called Generation of the New Wave. He was censored by the polish communist system. He settled in Paris in 1982, in his words, more because of sentimental reasons, than politics. He has also lived in Berlin and the USA, and came back to Cracovia in 2002. Every year he works as a guest professor in the University of Chicago.