Agnieszka Taborska


Agnieszka Taborska is a Polish writer, art historian, specialist in Surrealism, translator, and educator.

Life and work

She received MAs from the University of Warsaw. She lives in Warsaw and Providence, Rhode Island.
Taborska has been a lecturer on European art, film and literature at the Rhode Island School of Design since 1988. Her main areas of interest are French surrealism and how women are portrayed in Western art and literature of the late 19th and early 20th century.
She has curated exhibitions of Surrealist art in France and Poland.
From 1996 to 2004, she taught at the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art.
She is the author of essays, short stories, books for children, and novels in which her humor, care for language, and knowledge of Surrealism play important role. Her books have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. They have been illustrated by eminent artists such as Józef Wilkoń, Lech Majewski, Antoni Boratyński, Franciszek Maśluszczak, Andrzej Klimowski, Mieczysław Wasilewski, Selena Kimball, Krystyna Lipka-Sztarbałło, and Aleksandra Gołębiewska.
Films ; an opera, and a radio play have been adapted from her works.
She has written adapted screenplays for animated films based on her children's books as well as scripts for documentary films on art.
Agnieszka Taborska has also collaborated with numerous Polish art, literature, and film magazines: Literatura na Świecie, Tygodnik Powszechny, Gazeta Wyborcza, Czas Kultury, Obieg, Machina, Film na Świecie, Kwartalnik Filmowy, and dwutygodnik.com.
She has translated authors such as Philippe Soupault, Roland Topor, Gisèle Prassinos, and Spalding Gray into Polish.

Novels

Człowiek, który czeka. Pandemia na mansardzie, Lokator, Kraków, 2020. Niedokończone życie Phoebe Hicks, Słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk, 2013.Senny żywot Leonory de La Cruz, Słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk, 2004; extended edition 2011

Short stories

Nie tak jak w raju, Austeria, Kraków, Budapest, Syracuse, 2013.Wieloryb, czyli przypadek obiektywny, Czarne, Wołowiec, 2010.

Essays

Crazy, Real, Supernatural! The World of the Surrealists Miejsce wybrane, Austeria, Kraków, Budapest, Syracuse, 2019.Salomé une fois encore, Introduction to Oscar Wilde's Salomé, Editions Interférences, Paris, 2019.The Sea, or the Poet at WorkParyż surrealistyczny, Austeria, Kraków, Budapest, Syracuse, 2017.Providence, Austeria, Kraków, Budapest, Syracuse, 2017.Bretania, Austeria, Kraków, Budapest, Syracuse, 2018.Spiskowcy wyobraźni. Surrealizm, słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk, 2007, 2013.Okruchy amerykańskie, Twój Styl, Warsaw, 2006.Polubić muzykę country. Dziennik amerykańskiej podróży, NOWA, Warsaw, 1995.

Other publications

Archipelagi Rolanda Topora, Lokator, Krakow 2021. Świat zwariował. Poradnik surrealistyczny. Jak przeżyć, Bosz, Olszanica 2021. Translated into the Slovak by Julia Sherwood, 2023ja, czyli Ja, Austeria, Kraków, Budapest, Syracuse, 2020.AbecadłoTopora, WAB, Warsaw, 2005.

Children's books

Nie ma to jak sąsiedzi, Debit, Katowice, 2019.Licho wie, Bosz, Olszanica, 2018.Włóczykij, Prószyński, Warsaw, 2018.Rybak na dnie morza, Czuły Barbarzyńca, Warsaw, 2015.Licho i inni, Bosz, Olszanica, 2014.Szalony zegar, Twój Styl, Warsaw, 2008.Księżycowe duchy, Twój Styl, Warsaw, 2008.Czarna Góra, Twój Styl, Warsaw, 2008.Blues Nosorożca, Twój Styl, Warsaw, 2008.W malinowym dżemie, Wydawnictwo małe, Warsaw, 1995.

Film scripts and adaptations

Phoebe Hicks, opera by Czarny Karzeł, 2018.Licho nie śpi, puppet theatre by Teatr Uszyty, 2016.Ktoś stuka za ścianą, radio opera directed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski, 2015.A Fisherman at the Bottom of the Sea, directed by Leszek Gałysz, 2011.Crazy Clock, directed by Leszek Gałysz, 2009.Boltanski in Warsaw, directed by Marcin Giżycki, 2001.I am Providence. The story of H.P. Lovecraft and his city, directed by Marcin Giżycki, 1997.‘Ubu Roi’ premiere one hundred years later, directed by Marcin Giżycki, 1996.

Selected essays in collective books

I’m sick of the Earth and the Universe, “Pavilionesque III”, Wydawnictwo Latające Oko, Walker Art Center, and Akademie výtvarných umění in Prague, pp. 74–77, 2020.Franciszka Themerson and the Gaberbocchus Press: Bestlookers versus Bestsellers, Mikołaj Deckert, Monika Kocot, Aleksandra Majdzińska-Koczorowicz, Moving between Modes. Papers in Intersemiotic Translation, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź, pp. 151–159, 2020.Eugène Atget, Brassaï, International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Oxford, 2019.Inséparables, Planète Topor. Abram, Roland, Nicolas, Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris, Katowice, 2016.Hans Bellmer, Unica Zürn et les femmes sans têtes, Bellmer / Visat, Muzeum Historii Katowic, Katowice, 2015.Surrealism in the » fortress of constructivism,” Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi. Monografia, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, 2015.Suppressed Extravagances: Surrealist Echoes in Polish Film, Literature and Art Between the Wars, Conscious Hallucinations. The Filmic Surrealism, Belleville publ. and Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt, 2014.Day Dreams of Wojciech J. Has, A Story of Sin. Surrealism in Polish Cinema, Korporacja Ha!Art, Krakow-Warsaw, 2010.And if Witkacy lived on the Seine..., Introduction Jakub Banasiak, Zmęczeni rzeczywistością, 40000 Malarzy, Warsaw, 2009.Topor in Ubuland Topor, l’homme élégant, „Les Cahiers de l’Humoir,” 2004.Carrington Leonora, Contemporary Artists, St. James Press, Detroit, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, New Haven, Waterville, London, Munich, 2002.Desnos Lucie “Youki,” Éluard Nusch, Kisling Renée, Dictionary of Artists’ Models, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London, Chicago, 2001.

Awards

  • 2018: Nomination for the Book of the Year award given by the Polish section of IBBY for Włóczykij .
  • 2017: Not as in Paradise selected for Best European Fiction from Dalkey Archive.
  • 2014: Best Children’s Book of the Year award given by the Festival of Children’s Literature for Licho i inni .
  • 2010: Best Polish animated film for children award given by the Festival Ale Kino! for Szalony zegar, directed by Leszek Gałysz.
  • 1996: Award for the Best Book of the Month for Księżycowe duchy from the German Academy of Children's Literature.
  • 1995: Award for the Best Book of the Month for Szalony zegar from the German Academy of Children's Literature.

Reviews

Interviews with Agnieszka Taborska (in Polish)