Tadeusz Różewicz (born 9 October 1921, died 24 April 2014) was a Polish poet, dramatist and writer. Różewicz belongs to the first generation of Polish writers born after Poland regained its independence in 1918 following the century of foreign partitions. He was born in Radomsko near Łódź. His first poems were published in 1938. During the Second World War, like his brother Janusz (also a poet), he was a soldier of the Polish underground Home Army.

Postwar career

His brother Janusz Różewicz was executed by Gestapo in 1944. Tadeusz survived the war, finished high-school and enrolled at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, but in late 1940s moved to Wrocław where he lived for the next thirty years. By the time of his literary debut as highly innovative playwright in 1960 with The Card Index (Kartoteka), he was already the author of fifteen acclaimed volumes of poetry published since 1944. He had written over a dozen plays and several screenplays. The eruption of dramaturgical energy was also accompanied by major volumes of poetry and prose. Różewicz is considered one of Poland's best postwar poets and most innovative playwrights.

Some of his best known plays other than The Card Index include, The Interrupted Act (Akt przerywany, 1970), Birth Certificate (Świadectwo urodzenia, screenplay to an award-winning film by the same tite, 1961), Left Home (Wyszedł z domu, 1965), and The White Wedding (Białe małżeństwo, 1975). His New Poems collection was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008. Some of his works were translated into German by Ilka Boll.

Awards and honors

• 2007: European Prize for Literature
• 2012: Griffin Poetry Prize International shortlist for Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Różewicz, translated by Joanna Trzeciak

Selected bibliography

Różewicz' works include:

• 1947: Niepokój ("Anxiety")
• 1948: Czerwona rękawiczka ("The Red Glove")
• 1960: Rozmowa z księciem ("Conversation with a Prince")
• 1961: Głos Anonima ("The Anonymous Voice")
• 1962: Nic w płaszczu Prospera ("Nothing Dressed in Prospero's Cloak")
• 1964: Twarz ("The Face")
• 1968: Twarz trzecia ("The Third Face")
• 1968: Kartoteka ("The Card Index")
• 1969: Stara kobieta wysiaduje ("The Old Lady Sits Waiting")
• 1972: Na czworakach ("On All Fours")
• 1975: Białe małżeństwo ("White Wedding")
• 1982: Pułapka ("The Trap"), Warszawa: Czytelnik
• 1991: Płaskorzeźba ("Bas-Relief"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 1992: Nasz starszy brat ("Our Elder Brother")
• 1996: Zawsze fragment. Recycling ("Always a Fragment: Recycling"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 1999: Matka odchodzi ("Mother Departs"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2001: Nożyk profesora ("The Professor's Knife"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2002: Szara strefa ("Gray Zone"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2004: Wyjście ("Exit"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2007: nauka chodzenia, Wrocław: Biuro Literackie
• 2008: Kup kota w worku, Wrocław: Biuro Literackie