JACEK DUKAJ The Old Axolotl: Hardware Dreams, translated by Stanley Bill (Allegro, 2015). “The Old Axolotl is an exhilarating post-apocalyptic tale about a world in which a cosmic catastrophe has sterilized the Earth of all living things. Only a small number of humans have managed to copy digitalized versions of their minds onto hardware in
ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI (b. 1948) “An economist by education, Sapkowski worked in foreign trade from 1972-94. He is a five-time winner of the Janusz A. Zajdel Award, the most important honour for fantasy writers in Poland. He received Polityka magazine’s Literature Passport in 1997. What’s more, Sapkowski’s popularity is not limited to Poland; his novels have
OLGA TOKARCZUK (b. 1962) “Tokarczuk is one of the most critically acclaimed and most translated Polish writers, with House of Day, House of Night and Primeval and Other Tales being her greatest commercial and critical successes. She studied psychology at the University of Warsaw and lives in Wałbrzych. An outstanding writer, essayist and a devotee
STANISLAW LEM (1921-2006) “Stanisław Lem, the Polish novelist, futurologist, literary theorist, satirist, and philosophical gadfly, tried mightily to free his work from the shackles of the present. In dozens of novels, short stories, essays, metaliterary experiments, and futurological treatises, he attempted to imagine everything from a living ocean that could read human minds (Solaris) to
WITOLD GOMBROWICZ (1904-1969) “Gombrowicz is one of the most exceptional writers in the history of literature, at least in terms of his philosophy, his method of constructing texts and the power of his language. He fought endlessly against Polish tradition and history, but this was only the starting point. His work was deeply rooted in
originally published in Polish in 1961 first translated into English from the French version (by Jean-Michel Jasiensko, 1966) by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox (1970) first direct Polish-to-English translation by Bill Johnston (2011) grab a copy at your local bookstore or here VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS MY THOUGHTS *contains spoilers Much has been written about Solaris over
SHORT STORIES “All Living Creation” by Xiu Xinyu, translated from the Chinese by Elizabeth Hanlon (Clarkesworld Magazine, October 1). “20th Century Hotel” by Tomihiko Morimi, translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri (Samovar, October 26). “Express to Beijing West Railway Station” by Congyun ‘Mu Ming’ Gu, translated from the
OVERVIEW Polish SFT is a wonderful mix of science fiction and surrealism, fantasy and horror, cyberpunk and fairy tale. Since the 1960s, when Stanisław Lem, Witold Gombrowicz, and Stefan Grabiński were first translated and introduced to Anglophone audiences; to the present day, when Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher universe is available in English across various media; Polish
The new Penguin Science Fiction Series (which highlights classics of the genre) includes several works of SF in Translation: check it out here. Trafalgar by Angélica Gorodischer, translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Amalia Gladhart (6/8/2020) We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated from the Russian by Clarence Brown (6/8/2020)
Each month, Daniel Haeusser reviews short works of SFT that appear both online and in print. He is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Canisius College, where he teaches microbiology and leads student research projects with bacteria and bacteriophage. He’s also an associate blogger with the American Society for Microbiology’s popular Small Things Considered.
