Anna Frajlich Explained

Anna Frajlich
Birth Date:1942
Birth Place:Katta Taldyk, Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan
Occupation: Poet, journalist, scholar, teacher
Language:Polish
Alma Mater:University of Warsaw
Years Active:1958–present
Nationality:American
Spouse:Władysław Zając (1965–present)
Children:1

Anna Frajlich (born 1942), known also as Anna Frajlich-Zając,[1] is a Polish-American poet and a Senior Lecturer Emerita at the Department of Slavic Languages and Associate Faculty Member, Harriman Institute at Columbia University in New York City, where she taught Polish language and literature for over three decades.

Early life and education

Frajlich was born in 1942 in Kyrgyzstan to a Polish-Jewish family. The family was separated in 1941. Her father, Psachie Frajlich, a technician, found himself in Lysva, in Perm Region, in USSR, while her mother, Amalia, ended up in Kyrgyzstan where Anna was born.[2] The family was able to reunite in Lysva in 1943.[3] After the end of the war of World War II, in 1946, the family returned to Poland and settled in Szczecin.[4]

Frajlich graduated from the University of Warsaw with the master's degree in Polish literature. She studied at the Slavic Department of the New York University where she was awarded a PhD in Russian literature in 1991. Her doctoral thesis "Legacy of Ancient Rome in the Russian Silver Age" was later published as a monograph.[5] [6]

Career

After completing her master's degree, she worked in publications for visually impaired people.[7] In 1968–1969, the Communist government in Poland engaged in an anti-Semitic campaign that spurred the last significant emigration wave of Polish Jews from the country. Frajlich, together with her husband, engineer Władysław Zając, and son, emigrated to the United States in 1969.[8]

Her first teaching job in the United States was at SUNY Stony Brook where she taught Polish language.[9] In 1982, she started teaching Polish language and then literature at Columbia University, where she worked until her retirement in 2016.[10] She started contributing to the Polish émigré press in the United States and Europe.[11] She was also a freelance contributor to the Radio Free Europe, Polish Section. Anna Frajlich was the only Polish journalist from the Radio Free Europe to whom Czesław Miłosz granted an interview after he became the 1980 Nobel Prize winner in Literature.[12] [13]

She started writing and publishing her poetry in 1958 in weekly literary supplements in Warsaw, Szczecin and Poznań. Her first book of poetry "Aby wiatr namalować" ("To paint the wind") was published in 1976 in England. Her poetry in translation appeared in the US in journals "Mr. Cogito", "Artful Dodge", "Poet Lore", "Terra Poetica" and others since early 1980s.

In 2007, she was named an Honorary Ambassador of Szczecin (in Polish "Ambasador Szczecina").[14]

She has published numerous books of poetry, essays and articles. Her poetry was translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian languages. Frajlich is considered "not only a notable émigré poet, but, arguably, she is the most prominent Polish woman émigré poet of her generation".[15]

Scholars who study Polish emigre poetry agree that prevalent focus of her poetry are the "themes of time, change, journeys, exile, home and habituation, tamed landscapes and remembered objects, spaces lost and regained"[16] as well as the "themes of exile, emigration, dislocation, and adaptation to new cultural contexts"[17]

On October 24–25, 2016, the University of Rzeszów, which specializes in the study of post-war Polish émigré literature, hosted a conference "Tu jestem/zamieszkuję własne życie" dedicated to the life and work of Anna Frajlich.[18] The conference was co-sponsored by the Institute of Polish Philology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the most prestigious center of literary studies in Poland. The conference program states, "Frajlich’s life and work are a microcosm of the entire twentieth century and bear witness to its tragedies, particularly the Holocaust and the Cold War. Claiming her as one of Poland’s most distinguished poets is a paradigmatic revolution in itself, the fusing of exile and homeland".[19]

In 2022, the entire issue of the journal "The Polish Review" (2022, vol. 67, issue 1)[20] [21] was dedicated to her.

Personal life

Frajlich is married to Władysław Zając. She and her family currently live in New York City.[22]

Bibliography

Selected books of poetry in Polish

Selected books of poetry in translation

Selected books of prose

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Writers Directory . Gale, Cengage Learning . 2014 . 978-1-55862-841-0 . 2 . 1059 . English.
  2. Ufberg . Ross . 2022 . Conversation with the dead: an interview with Anna Frajlich . The Polish Review . University of Illinois Press . 67 . 1 . 93–109 . 10.5406/23300841.67.1.07 . 247466430 . EBSCO.
  3. Grol . Regina . 2001-06-01 . Eroticism and Exile . World Literature Today . 75 . 3/4 . 24. 10.2307/40156745 . 40156745 .
  4. Wörn . Achim . 2017 . Jews in Szczecin, 1945–50: At the Crossroad between Emigration and Assimilation . Region . 6 . 1 . 55–85 . 10.1353/reg.2017.0003 . 26377361 . 133678868 . JSTOR.
  5. Pyman . Avril . 2011 . The Legacy of Ancient Rome in the Russian Silver Age by Frajlich, Anna. . The Slavonic and East European Review . 89 . 1 . 117–118 . 10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.89.1.0117 . 10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.89.1.0117 . JSTOR.
  6. Davidson . Pamela . 2009 . The Legacy of Ancient Rome in the Russian Silver Age, Anna Frajlich . The Modern Language Review . 104 . 2 . 618–620 . 10.1353/mlr.2009.0227 . 25654928 . 246646681 . JSTOR.
  7. Carls . Alice-Catherine . Kozaczka . Grażyna J. . 2022-03-01 . Anna Frajlich: Departures, Returns, Memory . Polish Review . 67 . 1 . 146. 10.5406/23300841.67.1.11 . 247464244 .
  8. Anders . Jaroslaw . 2022 . Poetics of Loss and Dislocation: Classical Order and Personal Trauma in the Poetry of Anna Frajlich . Polish Review . 67 . 1 . 9–26. 10.5406/23300841.67.1.02 . 247459112 .
  9. Morzyńska-Wrzosek . Beata . 2022-03-01 . A Microhistory of Anna Frajlich's Émigré Experience . Polish Review . 67 . 1 . 61. 10.5406/23300841.67.1.05 . 247471213 .
  10. Web site: Meyer . Ronald . 2016 . Double identities: a profile of Anna Frajlich (-Zajac) . 2022-10-04 . columbia.edu.
  11. News: 1984-12-16 . New magazine offering outlet for talents of Polish emigres . 42 . New York Times . Section 1 . 2022-09-01.
  12. Book: Czeslaw Milosz: Conversations . University Press of Mississippi . 2006 . 9781578068296 . Haven . Cynthia . Jackson, MS . 12–23.
  13. Meyer . Ronald . 2016 . Double identities: a profile of Anna Frajlich (-Zajac) . Harriman Magazine . Summer 2016 . 36–45.
  14. Web site: Pomeranica.pl . 2022-08-22 . Pomeranica.pl.
  15. Grol . Regina . 2001 . Eroticism and Exile: Anna Frajlich's Poetry . World Literature Today . 75 . 3/4 . 22–29 . 10.2307/40156745 . 40156745 . JSTOR.
  16. Ligęza . Wojciech . 2022-03-01 . On Time Fleeting and Regained: the Poetry of Anna Frajlich . Polish Review . 67 . 1 . 27–40. 10.5406/23300841.67.1.03 . 247466348 .
  17. Grol . Regina . 2001-06-01 . Eroticism and Exile: Anna Frajlich's Poetry . World Literature Today . 75 . 3/4 . 22–29. 10.2307/40156745 . 40156745 .
  18. Pasterska . Jolanta . 2017 . W kręgu twórczości Anny Frajlich, czyli o Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej"Tu jestem / zamieszkuję własne życie". Twórczość poetycka, prozatorska i epistolarna Anny Frajlich (i nie tylko…) . Tematy I Konteksty . 7 . Uniwersytet Rzeszowski . 12 . 553–556 . 10.15584/tik.2017.41 . Repozytorium URW.
  19. Web site: Carls . Alice-Catherine . 2017-03-15 . Beyond Exile: Reclaiming Anna Frajlich . 2022-10-03 . World Literature Today.
  20. Web site: Polish Review . 2022-08-22 . The Polish Review.
  21. Web site: 2022-04-19 . "WRITING POLISH IN AMERICA": THE CASE OF ANNA FRAJLICH . 2022-09-01 . University of Wisconsin-Madison. Germanic, Nordic and Slavic..
  22. Meyer . Ronald . 2022-03-01 . Anna Frajlich's New York City . Polish Review . 67 . 1 . 119–140. 10.5406/23300841.67.1.10 . 247462210 .
  23. News: Bau . Zdzisław (Bob) . 1976 . 1976-04-02 . Poetka słysząca pękniecie ziarna w ziemi . 7 . Nowy Dziennik.
  24. Maciuszko . J. J. . 1981 . Tylko Ziemia by Anna Frajlich . World Literature Today . 55 . 1 . 143–144 . 10.2307/40135851 . 40135851.
  25. News: Peretz . Maya . 1982-10-28 . Indian Summer Anny Frajlich . 7 . Nowy Dziennik/Przegląd Polski.
  26. Carls . Alice-Catherine . 1987 . Który las by Anna Frajlich . World Literature Today . 61 . 2 . 315 . 10.2307/40143200 . 40143200 . JSTOR.
  27. Peretz . Maya . 1995 . Ogrodem i ogrodzeniem [A Garden and a Fence] by Anna Frajlich ]. The Polish Review . 45 . 1 . 111–113 . 25778832 . JSTOR.
  28. Skalmowski „Arkusz” 1995, nr 5, s. 5. . Wojciech . 1995 . I głucho pachnie cynamonem . Arkusz . 8 . 5.
  29. Dunaj . Ewa . 2000 . Znów zaczynasz wierzyć . Akcent . 3 . 155–157 . Polska Bibliografia Literacka.
  30. News: Borkowska . Grażyna . 2001-12-08 . Z jakiego portu płyną do jakiego . 37 . Wysokie Obcasy.
  31. Carls . Alice-Catherine . 2021 . Anna Frajlich. W pośpiechu rzeka płynie (review) . World Literature Today . 95 . 1 . 94–95 . 10.1353/wlt.2021.0224 . 245663092 . Project Muse.
  32. Carls . Alice-Catherine . 1992 . Between Dawn and the Wind: Selected Poetry by Anna Frajlich, Regina Grol-Prokopczyk . World Literature Today . 66 . 2 . 370–371 . 10.2307/40148274 . 40148274 . JSTOR.
  33. Krzyżanowski . Jerzy R. . 2001 . Reviewed Work: Between Lvov, New York and Ulysses' Ithaca: Józef Wittlin-Poet Essayist, Novelist by Anna Frajlich . World Literature Today . 75 . 2 . 389 . 10.2307/40156699 . 40156699 . JSTOR.
  34. Bird . Robert . 2013 . Anna Frajlich. The Legacy of Ancient Rome in the Russian Silver Age. . Canadian-American Slavic Studies . 47 . 1 . 98–99 . 10.1163/22102396-04701012 . Brill.
  35. News: Cybulska . Maja . 2009 . Przecież jesteśmy młodzi . 4 . Tydzień Polski (London) . 8.
  36. Jutkiewicz-Kubiak : . Midrasz nr 1 s. 60 . Katarzyna . 2011 . W poszukiwaniu dymu z komina . Midrasz . 1 . 60.
  37. Web site: W.&N. Turzański Foundation Award: Anna Frajlich-Zając . 2022-08-19 . culture.pl.
  38. Personages . NewsNet: News for the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies . 2016 . 56 . 1 . 30.
  39. Web site: 2016-12-05 . Literacka podróż Anny Frajlich . 2022-10-03 . Związek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźne (ZPPNO).
  40. Web site: Wybitny Polak . 2022-08-18 . Wybitny Polak.
  41. Web site: 2020-09-25 . Anna Frajlich Awarded Jubilee Medal of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin . 2022-08-19 . harriman.columbia.edu.
  42. News: 2020-12-14 . Uniwersytet Szczeciński uhonorował Annę Frajlich . 24Kurier.pl . 2022-08-08.
  43. Web site: PIASA (Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America) News . 2022-08-08 . piasa.org. 5 February 2021 .
  44. Web site: Polish American Historical Association Awards: Oscar Halecki Prize . 2022-08-08 . Polish American Historical Association.
  45. Web site: 2022-06-08 . Anna Frajlich Awarded Medal by the Akcent Cultural Foundation (Lublin) . 2022-08-19 . harriman.columbia.edu.