Jacek Maria Dehnel (born 1 May 1980 in Gdańsk, Poland) is a Polish poet, writer, translator and painter.

Life and work

He graduated from the Stefan Żeromski High School No. 5 in Gdańsk, where he excelled in Humanities. Dehnel studied at the University of Warsaw's College of Inter-Area Individual Studies In the Humanities and Social Sciences (Polish: Kolegium Międzyobszarowych Indywidualnych Studiów Humanistycznych i Społecznych) and graduated from the Faculty of Polish Language and Literature, where he obtained a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree, writing a thesis on Stanisław Barańczak's translations of Philip Larkin's works. His first collection of poems was the last book recommended by Polish Nobel Prize Laureate, Czesław Miłosz. Dehnel has published his poems in various literary magazines, including Kwartalnik Artystyczny, Studium, Przegląd Artystyczno-Literacki, Topos, Tytuł, Undergrunt. He also works for an internet literary portal Nieszuflada. Between September 2006 and July 2009, he was a co-host of cultural programme ŁOSssKOT broadcast on TVP1 (together with musician Tymon Tymański and journalist Maciej Chmiel). Dehnel has translated poetry of such poets as Osip Mandelshtam, W. H. Auden, Mary Oliver – unpublished, and Philip Larkin, George Szirtes – published. He has also rendered in Polish lyrics for songs by Ástor Piazzolla. He has been awarded literary prizes that include the Kościelski Award in 2005, the Paszport Polityki in 2007 and the cultural award of the city of Gdańsk Splendor Gedanesis in 2009. He received five nominations for Poland's most prestigious literary prize – the Nike Award: Balzakian (2009), Ekran kontrolny (2010), Saturn (2012); Matka Makryna (2015) and Krivoklat (2017) as well as two nominations for the Angelus Award for Lala (2007) and Saturn (2012) and the 2014 Wisława Szymborska Award for his book of poems Języki obce ("Foreign Languages"). In 2015, he was awarded Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis. In 2017, he co-wrote the screenplay to the award-winning experimental animated biographical drama film Loving Vincent about the life of painter Vincent van Gogh, and in particular, the circumstances of his death.

Personal life

He lived and worked in Warsaw, from March 2020 in Berlin. He openly identifies as gay, which is reflected in his literary works. In 2018, he married his long-term partner, translator and historian Piotr Tarczynski, in Wandsworth Town Hall in London. Dehnel and his partner publish works under the female pseudonym Maryla Szymiczkowa. In 2019, he undertook apostasy. Dehnel and Tarczynski left Warsaw for Berlin in 2021.

Books

Prose

Poetry

Translations

Other