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Foundation to honour Nobel laureate Szymborska

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 29.02.2012 15:02
A literary foundation and prize are set to be created in tribute to the late poet Wislawa Szymborska, who passed away in her home city of Krakow on 1 February.

photo
photo - Wojciech Dorosz

The poet's assistant Michal Rusinek said that the idea to create the foundation was in Szymborska's final will and testament which was made public on Wednesday.

In conjunction with the will, which leaves the poet's entire archives to the discretion of the foundation, Krakow authorities are aiming to create a museum of literature in the southern Polish city.

Michal Rusinek told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily that he will offer his “full cooperation” with this project, and that he hopes that Wislawa Szymborska's archives will be deposited in the prospective museum.

Deputy Mayor of Krakow Magdalena Sroka informed the paper that the city is counting on support from the Ministry of Culture and the Polish Book Institute in thr creation of the museum.

“Many outstanding writers worked and continue to work in Krakow, and their archives were often dispersed after their deaths” she said.

“Such a place is needed,” she said of the would be museum.

Besides Szymborska, fellow Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz also ended his days in Krakow after returning from exile in America after the fall of the Iron Curtain,

Acclaimed writer Stanislaw Lem spent most of his life in the city. Other notable figures who resided in the city for a time included Slawomir Mrozek and Konstanty Galczynski.

Magdalena Sroka said that it is too early to talk about an eventual location for the institution, stressing that the city wants to begin by creating a good project. She also stressed the need to find willing partners, both among the families of writers and at the state level.

Meanwhile, it has been announced that Szymborska's final volume of poems, entitled Wystarczy (Enough), will reach bookshops by the end of April, several months earlier than initially planned. (nh/pg)

tags: Szymborska
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