Od pisarza narodowego do światowego i z powrotem. O polskich uczestnikach Iowa Writing Program
From the National Writer to the Global One and Back Again: Polish Participants of the Iowa Writing Program

Summary/Abstract: Since 1966 Polish authors regularly participate in the world-famous International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, USA. Selected writers arrive in the United States as recipients of prestigious grants in order to meet American publishers, literary agents, journalists and readers. During their residency they establish relationships with other recognized writers and representatives of the world’s intellectual elite. Recommended by the Program’s organizers, they give lectures at renowned American universities after their residency in Iowa comes to an end. Due to these circumstances, they often perceive their stay in the US as an opportunity to upgrade their status of a national writer to the global one. Nevertheless, most of them do not succeed in such a transformation. The paper traces the efforts of three Polish writers: Andrzej Kijowski, Grzegorz Musiał and Artur Międzyrzecki, undertaken with the hope of making an international career. It also tries to find an explanation for their failure in this respect and to show how the lack of meaningful success outside Poland influenced the way in which these writers treated world literature and its representatives.

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