The Literary Union

Warsaw

The Literary Union is a new professional association for literary authors, established in
autumn of 2018 by its founding members, including Sylwia Chutnik, Jacek Dehnel, Barbara Klicka, Grzegorz Kasdepke, Dorota Masłowska, Zygmunt Miłoszewski, Olga Tokarczuk, Marcin Szczygielski and Ewa Winnicka – authors working with genres as diverse as fiction and reportage, poetry and prose, as well as children’s literature and works in specific genres.

 

The Union takes care of the interests of the entire writing community by focusing on
establishing systemic and institutional framework supporting this professional group, as well as lobbying for legislative changes in this area, concerning the Act on the Rights of Professional Artists and other laws.
Thanks to the cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office and other associations, the Union managed to organise the Book Congress, the outcome of which were the four model contracts for a book, article, meeting with author and stage adaptation, made available free of charge to all authors.

 

During the pandemic, in the midst of the first lockdown, the Union organised a series of fifty online meetings with authors and a fundraiser, the aim of which was to raise money to help writers, who were affected to the greatest extent by the restrictions imposed on the organisation of literary events. The fundraiser and the money raised through the Campaign for Literature – online charity auctions – have enabled the Union to pay out dozens of grants for struggling artists.

 

As of now, the Union has partnered with local governments and the Polish Literary
Translators’ Association to establish a network of residencies for writers and translators in Poland, we have also set up an informational website informing about residency opportunities in Poland and abroad. We are currently planning to open an impresario website bringing together the organisers of meetings with authors, as well as writers and translators.