On Translating Poems by American Authors

Julia Hartwig (1921–2017) belonged to the great generation of Polish poets that included Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, and Wisława Szymborska. In Poland she achieved something of a cult status, her public appearances and readings drawing large crowds. She was awarded numerous prizes in Poland, France, and the United States, including the Jurzykowski Prize and the Thornton Wilder Prize from the Translation Center at Columbia University, and the Austrian Georg Trakl Prize for poetry. Hartwig translated many American poets into Polish. She also translated poetry by Apollinaire, Rimbaud, Max Jacob, Cendrars, Supervielle, and Henri Michaux, and published studies of Apollinaire and Gerard de Nerval.

Clare Cavanagh is a specialist in modern Russian and Polish poetry. She has won numerous awards for her translation of Polish poetry and is currently working on a biography of the poet Czesław Miłosz. (updated 6/2010)