Dorota Masłowska dɔˈrɔta maˈswɔfska (born 1983) is a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 writer and journalist.

Masłowska was born on 3 July 1983 in Wejherowo

Wejherowo

Wejherowo is a town in Gdańsk Pomerania, northern Poland, with 47,435 inhabitants . It has been the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999; previously, it was a town in Gdańsk Voivodeship .-History:...

, and grew up there. She applied for the University of Gdańsk's faculty of psychology and was accepted, but left the studies for Warsaw, where she joined the culture studies at the Warsaw University. She first appeared in the mass-media when her debut book Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną (translated to English as either White and Red in the UK or Snow White and Russian Red in the US; literally means Polish-Russian War under White-Red Flag) was published. Largely controversial, mostly because of the language seen by many as vulgar, cynical and simple, the book was praised by many intellectuals as innovative and fresh. Among the most active supporters of Masłowska were Marcin Świetlicki

Marcin Swietlicki

Marcin Świetlicki is a Polish poet, writer, and musician. He lives and works in Cracow, Poland.Świetlicki was born in Piaski, near Lublin, Poland. He studied Polish Literature at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where he has been living since 1980. He worked as an editor at the Tygodnik...

 and Polityka

Polityka

Polityka is a centre-left weekly newsmagazine in Poland. With a circulation of 170,000 it is the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of Newsweek's Polish edition and Wprost. Today, the magazine has a slightly intellectual, social liberal profile, setting it apart from the more conservative...

 weekly staff, most notably renowned writer Jerzy Pilch

Jerzy Pilch

Jerzy Pilch is one of the most important contemporary Polish writers and journalists. Critics have compared Pilch's style to Witold Gombrowicz, Milan Kundera, or Bohumil Hrabal....

. A notable example of post-modernist literature, her book became a best-seller in Poland and won Masłowska several notable awards as well as general support among the critics. It was almost immediately translated onto several languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, English, Hungarian, Czech and Lithuanian, and won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

The Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's literature. It is Germany's only state-funded literary award. In the past, authors from many countries...

.

Her second novel Paw królowej (The Queen's Peacock) did not gain similar popularity, even though it won the NIKE Literary Award

Nike Award

The NIKE Literary Award is one of the most prestigious awards for Polish literature. Established in 1997 and funded by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's second largest daily paper, and the consulting company NICOM, it is conferred annually in October for the best book of a single living author writing in...

 in 2006. As of 2009, Dorota Masłowska permanent residence is in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. In 2009, she is staying in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 on a German Academic Exchange Service

German Academic Exchange Service

The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....

 stipend. She collaborates with a number of magazines, most notably the Przekrój

Przekrój

Przekrój is the oldest Polish weekly newsmagazine, established in 1945 in Krakow and since 2001 published in Warsaw. Przekrój was created by M. Eile who, until 1969, was the first editor-in-chief of the magazine...

 and Wysokie Obcasy weeklies, as well as Lampa monthly and the quarterly B EAT magazine.

Her first play, Dwoje biednych Rumunów mówiących po polsku (A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians), has been translated by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett and was performed for the first time in the UK at Soho Theatre

Soho Theatre

Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....

 from 28 February - 29 March 2008 with a cast featuring Andrew Tiernan

Andrew Tiernan

Andrew James Tiernan is an English actor.-Theatre:Tiernan began acting with the Birmingham Youth Theatre and moved to London in 1984 to study a three-year Diploma in Acting at the Drama Centre London run by Christopher Fettes and Yat Malmgren...

, Andrea Riseborough

Andrea Riseborough

-Early life:Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk To Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites"....

, Howard Ward, Valerie Lilley

Valerie Lilley

Valerie Lilley is a Northern Irish actress who has played many television roles on dramas such as Doctors and Grange Hill.Lilley currently appears on Channel 4's serial drama Shameless....

, Ishia Bennison

Ishia Bennison

Ishia Bennison is a British actress, best known for her television appearances, although she is also a veteran stage actress. Bennison is originally from Hull in Yorkshire.- Career :...

, John Rogan

John Rogan (actor)

John Rogan is an Irish actor who has appeared in many films and TV programmes over the past thirty years. Rogan was born and educated in Waterford, Ireland and was best known as a stage actor in many productions ranging from Shakespearean plays to musicals and contemporary drama...

 and Jason Cheater. Neither Goldman nor Sirett know Polish and based their adaptation, in many cases verbatim albeit uncredited, on the original translation of the play by Benjamin Paloff, which was commissioned by TR Warszawa in 2007.

Works

• 2002: Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną. Warsaw: Lampa i Iskra Boża, ISBN 83-86735-87-2 (UK edition: White and Red, Atlantic Books, ISBN 1843544237; US edition: Snow White and Russian Red, Grove Press, ISBN 0802170013)
• 2005: Paw królowej. Warsaw: Lampa i Iskra Boża, ISBN 83-89603-20-9 (no English translation announced yet)
• 2006: Dwoje biednych Rumunów mówiących po polsku. Warsaw: Lampa i Iskra Boża, ISBN 83-89603-41-1. Translated into English as A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians, by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett, Oberon Books Ltd (29 Feb 2008), ISBN 1840028467, ISBN 978-1840028461. Staged at Soho Theatre, London, between 28 February - 29 March 2008.
• 2008: Między nami dobrze jest, drama
• 2010: Schneeweiß und Russenrot, drama

External links

• The sweet taste of underground - Essay on Maslowska's second book, a rap poem, by German journalist Ina Hartwig at signandsight.com
• I Was a Teenage Polish Existentialist - Essay on Maslowska's first novel by Wolfie Darling.