David A. Goldfarb
banner
davidagoldfarb.bsky.social
David A. Goldfarb
@davidagoldfarb.bsky.social
Independent scholar, writer, translator in the field of Polish and comparative literature. Host and Producer of "Encounters with Polish Literature" for the Polish Cultural Institute New York. www.davidagoldfarb.com
Hanna Krall found her voice as one of the founders of the Polish school of reportage by telling the stories of her generation of Jews who survived the Holocaust as children. Catch my discussion with Sean Bye on “Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature.”
youtu.be/l7QAJms6BH8?...
Reportage IV: Hanna Krall with Sean Bye – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature S5E11
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Binge the entire series of "Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature" with this handy new playlist at--

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Sponsored by the Polish Cultural Institute New York
Encounters with Polish Literature: Full Series - YouTube
Binge the entire series from beginning to end or pick and choose your favorite authors and topics in Polish literature. For introductory pages and bibliograp...
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Jerzy Kosiński (“Being There,” “The Painted Bird”), subject of Agnieszka Holland’s next film, is the topic of the latest episode of “Encounters with Polish Literature.” Kosiński was an American cold war émigré sensation inextricable from his Polish context.

youtu.be/VgBKrh724X4?...
Jerzy Kosiński with Irena Grudzińska Gross – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature S5E10
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
October 16, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Ryszard Krynicki, one of Poland’s most prominent poets, is the subject of the latest episode of “Encounters with Polish Literature.” Clare Cavanagh offers her insights on the texts and discusses her long interaction with Krynicki.

youtu.be/anEo08jDrXE?...
Ryszard Krynicki with Clare Cavanagh – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature S5E9
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
September 11, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Bolesław Prus, “The Doll”: A man of the rising middle class in possession of a fortune in want of a wife of the declining gentry in cosmopolitan Warsaw. Empires at war, money to be made, but politics roil just below the surface.

Bonus: The “crisis in literacy.”

youtu.be/kOP3P7uyUJQ?...
Bolesław Prus – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature S5E8
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
August 7, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Oksana Lutsyshyna is one of Ukraine’s most interesting writers with two novels and one collection of poetry in English translation and several major Ukrainian prizes. Catch our conversation on the latest episode of “Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature.” youtu.be/B9keypXZIWI?...
Oksana Lutsyshyna – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature – S5E7
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
July 1, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Juliusz Słowacki, the Polish Romantic bard, may have been a great patriot or a great mystic, George Grabowicz (Harvard) offers another way in by looking at Słowacki as part of the Ukrainian School in Polish Romanticism on “Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature.” youtu.be/ONqE33t84DQ?...
Juliusz Słowacki with George G. Grabowicz – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
June 17, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Sofia Andrukhovych is one of the most celebrated novelists being translated from Ukrainian into English right now. Get a preview of her novel out soon, “Felix Austria,” and her magnum opus, “Amadoka” on the latest episode of “Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature”

youtu.be/4U4qDVkB8wM?...
Sofia Andrukhovych with Vitaly Chernetsky – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
May 12, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Congrats to Tomasz Różycki and Mira Rosenthal on winning the 2025 PEN Translation Prize for poetry, for Mira’s translation of “To the Letter” from Archipelago Books. Catch my recent conversation with Tomasz and Krystyna Dąbrowska on “Encounters with Polish Literature.” youtu.be/dkV_mmJaVWs?...
Krystyna Dąbrowska and Tomasz Różycki – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
May 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
What better day than the anniversary of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 to think about the Enlightenment in Poland? youtu.be/cALH99-KLyU?...
Ignacy Krasicki with Bożena Shallcross – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature – S5E4
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
May 3, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Ignacy Krasicki, Enlightenment author of Poland's 1st novel, "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom": a critique of the urbanized gentry and a utopian vision of the state of nature, inspired by Voltaire and Rousseau. On "Encounters with Polish Literature"
youtu.be/cALH99-KLyU?...
Ignacy Krasicki with Bożena Shallcross – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature – S5E4
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
April 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Jan Kochanowski, Renaissance poet, is the subject of episode 50 of “Encounters with Polish Literature” with translator and scholar, Barry Keane. We focus on the “Laments” (“Treny”) and his political play, “The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys.” youtu.be/vnYMGx1P7K4?...
Jan Kochanowski with Barry Keane – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature – S5E3
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
March 13, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Listen to my conversation about Papusza, Poland's most prominent Roma poet, with Emilia Kledzik, author of a controversial reassessment of Polish scholarship on Roma culture, on "Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature."

youtu.be/NlGe3cgpgRk?...
Papusza with Emilia Kledzik – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature – S5E2
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
February 18, 2025 at 8:31 PM
New NEH grant restrictions--

• promotion of gender ideology
• promotion of discriminatory equity ideology
• support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives or activities
• environmental justice initiatives or activities
www.neh.gov
February 12, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day I'd like to invite you to listen to my discussion of the work of Tadeusz Borowski with Irena Grudzińska Gross. Borowski was not Jewish, but wrote some of the most searing accounts of life in Auschwitz. youtu.be/ABlalV8_zr8?...
Tadeusz Borowski with Irena Grudzińska Gross – Encounters with Polish Literature – S5E1
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
January 27, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Remember when the only A-list entertainment at the inauguration was this performer singing a song about a guy who just got out of prison after doing "three long years" for robbery? youtu.be/P8be_wL74DM?...
Tony Orlando Inauguration Liberty & Freedom Ball January 20, 2017
YouTube video by Carolyn Lehmann
youtu.be
January 19, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Poetry in the age of Miłosz, Herbert, Szymborska, and Zagajewski was one of Poland’s main exports, but what’s happening today?

Join me on “Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature” with two of Poland’s leading poets, Krystyna Dąbrowska and Tomasz Różycki.

youtu.be/dkV_mmJaVWs?...
Krystyna Dąbrowska and Tomasz Różycki – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
December 19, 2024 at 8:27 PM
Tulsi Gabbard's deep ties to the Science of Identity cult discussed in Civil Beat, Hawai'i's leading source for investigative jounalism. www.civilbeat.org?p=1685310&ut...
Senators Urged To Examine Gabbard's 'Deep and Intense' Ties To Hawaiʻi Sect
Senators Urged To Examine Gabbard's Ties To Sect
www.civilbeat.org
December 10, 2024 at 8:46 PM
Slavists who may have been frantically writing papers for ASEEES in Boston when announcements went out for the latest episode of "Encounters with Polish Literature," catch my conversation with Agi Legutko about Isaac Bashevis Singer, women, Yiddish in Poland, translation +. youtu.be/dctFk1QCbyM?...
Isaac Bashevis Singer with Agi Legutko – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature S4E11
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
November 26, 2024 at 9:22 PM
I think this is the first translation in book form of Papusza, Poland's most prominent Roma poet, into English. It is her memoir of the massacre of Roma in Volhynia during WWII. Download the book for free. It's open access--

brill.com/display/titl...
Papusza / Bronisława Wajs. Tears of Blood
"Papusza / Bronisława Wajs. Tears of Blood" published on 18 Nov 2024 by Brill | Schöningh.
brill.com
November 19, 2024 at 10:15 PM
Isaac Bashevis Singer is the topic of the latest episode of "Encounters with Polish Literature." Agi Legutko (Columbia U) and I discuss the status of women in Singer's writing and how to think about a Yiddish writer in the multicultural context of Polish literature. youtu.be/dctFk1QCbyM?...
Isaac Bashevis Singer with Agi Legutko – Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature S4E11
YouTube video by Polish Cultural Institute in New York
youtu.be
November 18, 2024 at 8:02 PM
Folks who know me from xwitter know that I post about Polish and sometimes Ukrainian literature with announcements of new episodes of my video series, "Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature" hosted on YouTube by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
November 11, 2024 at 3:59 AM