How to Write History with Ewa Winnicka, Cezary Łazarewicz, and Michał Wójcik

Please join us for a conversation with award-winning Polish writers and reportage authors Ewa Winnicka, Cezary Łazarewicz, and Michał Wójcik exploring historical writing, research, and Polish history. 

Together, they will discuss the inspiration for their latest books, including Ewa Winnicka's Miasteczko Panna Maria: Ślązacy na Dzikim Zachodzie, Cezary Łazarewicz's Na Szewskiej, Michal Wojcik's Rywka: Śmierć ze złotym warkoczem. Winnicka, Łazarewicz, and Wójcik will also explore the different ways they find witnesses, uncover facts, and a build a narrative. How is historical research organized? What aspects of Poland’s debates over historical memory are most meaningful for the Polish diaspora and American audiences? 

This is a bilingual program with conversation in Polish and English. Please register in advance as space is limited!

PARTICIPANTS

Ewa Winnicka is Polish journalist and reporter. She deals with social issues, especially the policy towards dysfunctional families and child protection, as well as the Polish diaspora in Great Britain and the United States. Three-time winner of the Grand Press award: in 2005, 2008 and in 2018. For her reportage "Angole" (2014), she was nominated for the "Nike" Literary Award 2015 and received the Gryfia Literary Award for Authors 2015. Together with Cezary Łazarewicz, she published the 1968 "Czasy nadchodzą nowe" (1968. New Times Are Coming) (Agora, Warsaw 2018). For her book "There Was a Boy" she was nominated for the Upper Silesian Literary Award "Juliusz" 2018. 
 

Cezary Łazarewicz (born 1966) is a press journalist, reporter, and columnist. He has published in leading Polish newspapers and magazines, including Gazeta Wyborcza, Przekrój, and Polityka. He is the author of numerous reportage books: The Interrupted History of the Jabłkowski Brothers’ House (2013), The Elegant Murderer (2015), So There Would Be No Traces: The Case of Grzegorz Przemyk (2016), 1968: New Times Are Coming (2018, co-authored with Ewa Winnicka), and Nothing Personal: The Case of Janusz Waluś (2019). For So There Would Be No Traces, he received the Nike Literary Award, the Oskar Halecki Award (granted to the best popular history books on 20th-century Poland), and the MediaTory Award in the Observer category. The book was also named Book of the Year 2016 in a Radio Kraków poll, was nominated for the Silesian Laurel of Literature and the Kazimierz Moczarski Historical Award, and was a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award.

 

 

Michał Wójcik (born 1969) is a historian and journalist. He worked at Radio Zet and for the weekly Przekrój, and served as editor-in-chief of the magazines Focus and Focus Historia. He co-created the Rapid History Program for TVN Warszawa and the series Was/Wasn’t for Discovery Historia. On TVP Historia, he hosted the program Cafe Historia. Together with Emil Marat, he received the 2015 Polityka Weekly Historical Award for the book on Stanisław Likiernik, Made in Poland.