dumbfoundry

Marta Kijowska would have like to have visited the poet and Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska in her studio, but she was not granted entry. "Szymborska is not comforatable talking about herself and she absolutely hates talking about poetry. She's apparantly only done it twice in public: when she was awarded the Goethe Prize (1991) and when she won the Nobel Prize (1996). This latter distinction did nothing to change her defensive way. To the contrary, since the 'Stockholm Tragedy' – as the prize is called among her friends – she is in fact at war with the media. She hardly gives interviews and turns down all photo shoots. She lives withdrawn and modestly. In her three room apartment on the edge of Crakow, there is room for two things: her books and all the absurd-excessive objects that she is constantly being given by her friends. Those who have witnessed one of her outbreaks of enthusiasm, or has heard her assertion that the first thing she would rescue if her apartment were to go up in flames is a casket-shaped silver box out of which a silver bird picks out cigarettes, gets hooked on her appreciation of life."

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 at 12:20 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.