Wydawnictwo Literackie (abbreviated WL, lit. "Literary Press") is a

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

-based Polish

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, which has been referred to as one of Poland's "most respected".

Company history

Since its foundation in 1953, Wydawnictwo Literackie has been focused on publishing modern prose and poetry by both renown and emerging authors, both Polish and foreign. In recent years it is primarily associated with editions of Polish language classics of the 20th century and of modern science-fiction novels. In recent years the publishing house also expanded into the market of textbooks for

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...

, lexicons and dictionaries. In 2019 the company was reported to have 44 employees and an annual turnover of "$13.78 million in sales". The company headquarters is located in the Dom Pod Globusem building at 1 Długa Street, Krakow. A globe with the symbol of the company sits on the top of that building.

Polish authors

Among the writers and poets associated with the publishing house are

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winners

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...

Wisława Szymborska Maria Wisława Anna SzymborskaVioletta Szosta gazeta.pl, 9 February 2012. ostęp 2012-02-11 (; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent ( ...

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great b ...

and

Olga Tokarczuk Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk (; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland; in 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize ...

. Other Polish authors whose works have been published by the Wydawnictwo Literackie (some of them for the first time, or for the first time in official print) include Janusz Anderman,

Jacek Dukaj Jacek Józef Dukaj (born 30 July 1974) is a Polish science fiction and fantasy writer. He has received numerous literary prizes including the European Union Prize for Literature and Janusz A. Zajdel Award. Career He was born on 30 July 1974 ...

, Aleksander Fiut,

Witold Gombrowicz Witold Marian Gombrowicz (August 4, 1904 – July 24, 1969) was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937 he published his fi ...

Stefan Grabiński Stefan Grabiński (26 February 1887 – 12 November 1936) was a Polish writer of fantastic literature and horror stories. He is sometimes referred to as the "Polish Poe" or "Polish Lovecraft", although his works are often surrealistic or expl ...

Zbigniew Herbert Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume titled ...

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (; May 20, 1919 − July 4, 2000) was a Polish writer, journalist, essayist, World War II underground fighter, and political dissident abroad during the communist system in Poland. He is best known for writing a personal ...

, Marek S.Huberath,

Maria Janion Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

Ryszard Kapuściński Ryszard Kapuściński (; 4 March 1932 – 23 January 2007) was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in bo ...

Jan Kott Jan Kott (October 27, 1914 – December 22, 2001) was a Polish political activist, critic and theoretician of the theatre. A leading proponent of Stalinism in Poland for nearly a decade after the Soviet takeover, Kott renounced his Communist Pa ...

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical ...

Ewa Lipska Ewa Lipska (born 8 October 1945 in Kraków), is a Polish poet from the generation of the Polish "New Wave." Collections of her verse have been translated into English, Italian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German and Hungarian. She lives in Vienna an ...

, Jerzy Pilch,

Tadeusz Różewicz Tadeusz Różewicz (9 October 1921 – 24 April 2014) was a Polish poet, playwright, writer, and translator. Różewicz was in the first generation of Polish writers born after Poland regained its independence in 1918, following the century of f ...

Jan Józef Szczepański Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

Jan Twardowski Jan Jakub Twardowski (1 June 1915 – 18 January 2006) was a Polish poet and Catholic priest. He was a chief Polish representative of contemporary religious lyrics. He wrote short, simple poems, humorous, which often included colloquialisms. He ...

Karol Wojtyła Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

and

Adam Zagajewski Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, the 2017 P ...

Foreign authors

The printing house also publishes the Polish language editions of literary classics of English, German, Spanish and Russian-language literary worlds, including the works by

Lisa Appignanesi Lisa Appignanesi (born Elżbieta Borensztejn; 4 January 1946) is a British-Canadian writer, novelist, and campaigner for free expression. Until 2021, she was the Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a former President of English PEN ...

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry J ...

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civiliza ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

Didier van Cauwelaert Didier Van Cauwelaert (born 29 July 1960) is a French author of Belgian descent who was born in Nice. In 1994 his novel '' Un Aller simple'' won the Prix Goncourt. In 1997 he was awarded the Grand prix du théâtre de l’Académie française. ...

Susanna Clarke Susanna Mary Clarke (born 1 November 1959) is an English author known for her debut novel '' Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began ''Jonathan Strange'' in 1993 and worked on it during her ...

, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt,

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

T.S.Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Bi ...

Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), ''Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), ''The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christopher ...

, Jason Goodwin,

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' and novels '' High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work ...

, Ivan Klima, David Mitchell,

Garth Nix Garth Richard Nix (born 19 July 1963) is an Australian writer who specialises in children's and young adult fantasy novels, notably the ''Old Kingdom'', '' Seventh Tower'' and '' Keys to the Kingdom'' series. He has frequently been asked if hi ...

Ian Ogilvy Ian Raymond Ogilvy (born 30 September 1943) is an English actor, playwright, and novelist. Early life Ogilvy was born in Woking, Surrey, England, to Francis Fairfield Ogilvy, brother of advertising executive David Ogilvy, and actress Aileen ...

Bulat Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (russian: link=no, Булат Шалвович Окуджава; ka, ბულატ ოკუჯავა; hy, Բուլատ Օկուջավա; May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musici ...

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...

Matthew Pearl Matthew Pearl (born October 2, 1975) is an American novelist and educator. His novels include '' The Dante Club'', '' The Poe Shadow'', '' The Last Dickens'', '' The Technologists'', and '' The Last Bookaneer''. Biography Pearl was born in New Yo ...

Graham Swift Graham Colin Swift FRSL (born 4 May 1949) is an English writer. Born in London, England, he was educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. Career Some of Swift's books have been filmed ...

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

Book series

''Title of the series in Polish / English translation of series title'' * Biblioteka Klasyki Polskiej i Obcej (Library of Polish and Foreign Classics) * Biblioteka Krakowska (Cracow Library) * Biblioteka Poezji Młodej Polski (Young Poland Poetry Library) * Biblioteka Romantyczna (Romantic Library) * Biblioteka Studiów Literackich (Library of Literary Studies) * Cykl Historii Polski (Polish History Series) * Cracoviana (Cracoviana) * Cykl wspomnień Żydów krakowskich (Memories of Krakow Jews series) * Dziela stara seria (An Old Series Shared) * Dziela: Witold Gombrowicz (Works of Witold Gombrowicz) * Fantastyka i Groza (Fantasy and Horror) * Historia i Zagadnienia Sztuki (History and Issues of Art) * Lekcja Literatury (Literature Lesson) * Leksykon Historii i Kultury Polskiej (Lexicon of Polish History and Culture) * Listy Stanislawa Witkiewicza i jego korespondentow (Letters of Stanislaw Witkiewicz and his Correspondents) * Literatura Iberyjska (Iberian Literature) * Ludzie i Wydarzenia (People and Events) * Monografie (Monographs) * Monografie Historycznoliterackie (History and Literary Monographs) * Obrazy Współczesności (Contemporary Pictures) * Pamietniki i Wspomnienia (Diaries and Memories) * Pisarze Języka Niemieckiego (German Language Writers) * Polskie Opowiadania Wspolczesne (Polish Contemporary Stories) * Portrety Wielokrotne (Multiple Portraits) * Proza Iberoamerykańska (Ibero-American Prose) * Seria Dawnej Literatury Angielskiej (Early English Literature Series) * Seria Dwujęzyczna (Bilingual Series) * Seria Eseju Klasycznego (Classical Essay Series) * Seria Klasyków Nowoczesnej Literatury (Series of Classics of Modern Literature) * Seria Pary (Couples Series)Seria Pary
worldcat.org. Retrieved 7 March 2021. * Seria Tatrzańska (Tatrzańska Series) * Skarbiec Polski (Treasury of Poland) *

poleca (Stanislaw Lem Recommends) * Studia z Historii Doktryn (Studies in the History of Doctrines) * Tadeusz Peiper: Pisma * Wspomnienia oświęcimskie (

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

Memories) * Wspomnienia Pilota (Pilot's Memories) * Wydawnictwa Muzeum Tatrzanskiego (Tatra Museum Publishing House) * Z Dziel Juliusza Kaden-Bandrowskigo (From Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski's Quarter) * Z Klepsydrą (With an Hourglass) * Z Materialow Pracowni Badania Sztuki Ludowej Instytutu Sztuki PAN (From the Material Studio of Folk Art Research of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences) * Z Prac Muzeum Azji i Pacyfiku (From the Works of the Asia and Pacific Museum) * Z Prac Zakladu Teatru Instyt (From the Works of the Theater Institute)

References

External links

Wydawnictwo Literackie
at Culture.pl
WL Wydawnictwo Literackie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wydawnictwo Literackie Publishing companies of Poland Publishing companies established in the 1950s Mass media in Kraków Book publishing companies of Poland