Wislawa Szymborska

Wisława Szymborska was born in Bnin (now a part of Kórnik) in Western Poland in 1923. She studied Polish Literature and Sociology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She has published more than fifteen books of poetry including Widok z ziarnkiem piasku, 102 wiersze (1996), Ludzie na moscie (1986), Poezje wybrane II (1983), Wybór wierszy (1973), Poezje (1970), Poezje wybrane (1967) and Wolanie do Yeti (1957). Her poems have been translated into many languages; her collections available in English include, Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wisława Szymborska (2001, W.W. Norton & Company, translated by Joanna Trzeciak), View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems (1995, translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh), People on a Bridge (1990, translated by Adam Czerniawski), and Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems (1981, translated by Magnus Krynski and Robert A. Maguire). Among her many honours and awards are a Goethe Prize, a Herder Prize, and a Polish PEN Club prize. Wisława Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. She has lived in Krakow since 1931.