Poezje zebrane, T. I: 1970-1997

Abstract

This publication presents the poetic works of Jan Leończuk (born in 1950), a poet, prose writer, translator, librarian, and regional studies scholar, collected in two volumes. Throughout his whole life, Jan Leończuk was connected with Podlasie, the North-Eastern, multicultural part of Poland, his native village of Łubniki, and the towns Zabłudów and Białystok. The poet was born on June 24, 1950, in Łubniki near Białystok to Antoni and Józefa née Dakowicz. In 1970, he graduated from the Agricultural Technical School in Białystok, and then began studying at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Warsaw's Branch in Białystok, with majors in Polish philology and history. In 1975, he received the diploma of graduation from the Faculty of Polish and Slavonic Philology of the University of Warsaw (UW). From 1975, he worked as an academic teacher at the Institute of Polish Philology at the UW branch in Białystok, and after a two-year break, from 1985 at the Institute of History of this university, after which he was nominated the director of the Łukasz Górnicki's Provincial Public Library in Białystok (1998). He held this function until 2016. He was the co-founder of the Kicki Poetry Salon, which operated in 1975–1976 at the University of Warsaw, and the Literary Group of the Polish Teachers' Union (ZNP) called "Bakałarz" (Bachelor) in Białystok (1975–1977). He debuted in 1970 with a poetic cycle published in "Radar". He was the founder and the first president of the Society of Friends of the Zabłudów Land. Since 1991, he was the editor-in-chief of the local bi-monthly magazine Z Zabłudowskiej Ziemi, since 1994 he was connected with the magazines Gryfita, Magazyn Polski (Grodno – Białystok) and the quarterly magazine Rubieże (Białystok). Between 1991 and 2000 he was a judge of Wiesław Kazanecki Literary Award of the Mayor of Białystok. Member of the Polish Writers' Union (Związek Literatów Polskich – ZLP) since 1989, in 1992–1995, vicepresident of the Białystok branch of ZLP; in 1995–1999 – its president. Since 1990 he has collaborated with Radio Białystok, broadcasting weekly columns entitled Z zapiśnika Jana Leończuka [From Jan Leończuk's Pocketbook]. Two-time winner of the Wiesław Kazanecki Literary Award of the Mayor of Białystok (1990 and 1997) and the Award of the Mayor of Białystok in the field of creating and disseminating culture (1997). In 1979 and in 1987, he was honored with the Creative Award of the District Governor of Białystok. In 1979, he received the Award of the Provincial National Council, 1987 – Award of the Director of the Department of Culture and Art, 1993 – Diploma of the Minister of Culture and Art. In 1991, he was honored with Włodzimierz Pietrzak Literary Award. Winner of Franciszek Karpiński National Literary Award. He published several volumes of poetry and 7 volumes of prose entitled Zapiśnik [The Pocketbook]. In his poetry, we find references to the traditions of such poets as Józef Czechowicz, Czesław Miłosz, Tadeusz Różewicz, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, and Edward Stachura. Leończuk's poetry combines the expressively sharply described existential experience of the subject (otherness, body, melancholy, catastrophe) with the cultural experience of the Latin-Byzantine borderland of Europe. The volume was preceded by two introductions by professors from the University of Białystok: Jarosław Ławski and Dariusz Kulesza. The edition was prepared jointly by Łukasz Górnicki's Library in Podlasie and the Faculty of Philology of the University of Białystok.