Bronisław Maj

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Bronisław Maj, born 19 November 1953 in Łódź, is a Polish poet, essayist, translator, columnist, screenwriter, playwright and academic. He is the son of Marian Maj, a radio journalist, and Maria Brykalska, an economist. He finished high school in Łódź in 1972 and earned a master’s degree in Polish philology from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1977. In 1988 he earned a doctorate in humanities, with a thesis on Tadeusz Gajcy supervised by Wiesław Paweł Szymański. He lived at the Dom Literatów in Kraków.

Maj published his first poem in 1970 and his first poetry book in 1980. He won the Kościelski Award in 1984 for the poetry book Wspólne powietrze (The Common Air). His poetry often touches on metaphysical themes but isn’t traditional religious poetry. His work has been translated into many languages, including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Russian and Hebrew.

In 1992 he published a monograph on Tadeusz Gajcy, and in 2019 an edition of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński’s poems was released. In 1977 he co-founded the KTO Theatre with Jerzy Zoń, Adolf Weltschek and Bogdan Rudnicki, and he was friends with Jerzy Pilch. Maj has performed on stage as Pani Lola (Mrs Lola) or Karolina Surówka and wrote lyrics for several songs by Grzegorz Turnau. He taught modern Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University and lives in Kraków.

In 2015 his play Neomonachomachia led to accusations of offending religious feelings by the Polish League Against Defamation; he was interrogated by police in February 2016, but the investigation was later discontinued.