Polish writer Janusz Głowacki dies

He left behind a prolific output of internationally acclaimed plays, numerous volumes of short stories, film scripts and radio plays.

Born in 1938, Głowacki graduated from the Polish Studies Department at the University of Warsaw. In 1960, while still a student, he made his prose debut and four years later joined the editorial board of the popular weekly Kultura, contributing weekly columns and short stories to it.

When martial law was imposed in Poland in December 1981, he happened to be in London for the British premiere of his play Cinders. He stayed in the UK for some time, before going to New York, where he settled.

It was in the US that he wrote his best-known plays: Hunting Cockroaches, Antigone in New York, and The Fourth Sister. In 1993, Antigone in New York was included in the list of 10 best plays of the year compiled by Time magazine.

Głowacki made his first visit to Poland after the fall of communism in 1989 and later divided his life between Warsaw and New York, spending more and more time in his homeland.

His film scripts include Andrzej Wajda’s Hunting Flies (1969) and Wałęsa: Man of Hope (2013).

His works have been translated into many languages including English, German, French, Russian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Turkish.

Głowacki’s honours include the American Theatre Critics Association Award, the John S. Guggenheim Award, the Hollywood Drama-League Critics Award, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jurzykowski Prize, the Czesław Miłosz Award and the Warsaw Literary Prize. He also received several high Polish state distinctions. (mk/str)