Florianna Kiszczak – wtites poems and stories dominated by themes of folk and sacred culture. In her prose, she describes village traditions, rituals and everyday life of the farmers.

Radzięcin, Lubelskie Voivodeship, Biłgoraj Land

Florianna Kiszczak started writing in 1980. She writes poems and short prose forms (stories, memoirs, fairytales), and she documents the manifestations of folk culture, both spiritual and material. The characteristic features of her writing are best exemplified in her two anthologies: W świętości pszenic (In the Sanctity of Wheat) and Kiedy dzień zaczyna gasnąć (When the Day Begins to Fade).

The author’s lyrics are centred around the themes of family, religion and community, which feature motifs of mother, the sanctity of nature, passing, and the relationship between man and environment. Frequently, her works draw on her own personal experiences – the people close to her heart and the missionary character of their work on the farm.

In her self-referential poems, she contemplates the essence of her own writing, which – in her opinion – is a force that has its roots in the field landscapes, farmland and the life of the farmers.

In her prose, on the other hand, she describes the proceedings of the Catholic holidays, traditional beliefs, rituals and customs, as well as magical practices and ritualistic props. The plot is invariably set in familiar surroundings – the village of Radzięcin and its environs. The local cultural landscape also serves as the inspiration for her works in the genre of magical fairytales.

Kiszczak has been a multiple winner of such contests as the Ogólnopolski Konkurs Literacki im. Jana Pocka (Jan Pocek National Literary Competition), in whose twenty-five editions she has received no fewer than thirty-four prizes. Her awarded works include: Odejdę a po mnie pieśń zostanie (I Will Go But My Song Will Remain),  Odnajdę wieczność w kroplach rosy (I’ll Find Eternity in Dewdrops), Chodzę o świcie po srebrnych polach (I Walk the Silver Fields at Dawn), Gdzie ptaki drzewom skrzydła podają (Where the Birds Lend Their Wings to the Trees) and Obłoki z niebem w sercu noszę (I Carry the Clouds and the Sky in My Heart).

In 2012, she received the ‘Swan Feather’ Lifetime Achievement Award from the Biłgoraj Literary Society.