Elzbieta Jolanta Wójcik-Leese

As a scholar, poet and literary translator, I write with/in English, Polish and Danish. My multilingual texts investigate translanguaging and belonging. I write research-based poetry in response to, for example, environmental studies, geology, glaciology or archaeology; I am interested in place writing, short forms, hybridity, archives and visual arts. My work crosses Creative Writing, Translation Studies, Stylistics, Cognitive Poetics (I hold a PhD in cognitive linguistics) and Literary Studies (I specialize in contemporary poetry in English; my MA focused on contemporary American fiction). In my site-specific creative practice, I use such analogue processes as botanical inkmaking, cyanotype, pinhole photography, expressive calligraphy and bookmaking.

In 2021 I won a ‘Green Education, Research and Societal Engagement’ grant to design a course in ecocritical reading and environmental writing: ‘Abrikostræerne Findes/Apricot Trees Exist.’  I piloted the course in autumn 2022 with an amazing student contribution and dedication; I ran its expanded version in autumn 2023. This multimodal, creative, practice-led course is open to all students who want to learn about climate, environment as well as more-than-human and human interrelatedness from recent research (conducted, for example, by the Center for Permafrost, Sustainability Science Centre and Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Copenhagen) and through textual/visual art making.

I was involved in the Academy of Finland/ NOS-HS-funded workshop series on ‘The Politics and Ideologies of Multilingual Writing.’ Our network brought together researchers from universities in Denmark (Copenhagen), Finland (Jyväskylä) and Sweden (Stockholm). We examined ‘the process and trajectory of writing for publication by multilingual authors and/or in multilingual settings.’ Unlike previous research which considered academic, journalistic and creative writing as separate domains, ours looked at their intertwinement.

During my Fulbright scholarship, I used genetic criticism and cognitive poetics to examine the composition process recorded in multiple drafts of the American poet Elizabeth Bishop. My archival research led to Cognitive Poetic Readings in Elizabeth Bishop: Portrait of a Mind Thinking (De Gruyter Mouton, 2010). I engaged in psychogeography and flânerie to co-write Metropoetica. Poetry and Urban Space: Women Writing Cities (Seren, 2013), where English spans Polish, Latvian, Slovenian, Icelandic and Finnish.

My poems, short forms and hybrid texts have featured in such journals as Cordite Poetry Review, Envoi, Finished Creatures, The Island Review, Long Poem Magazine, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Projectionist’s Playground, Shearsman, Tears in the Fence and in anthologies, including Wretched Strangers: Borders, Movement, Homes (2018) and Other Countries: Contemporary Poets Rewiring History (2014). My stop-motion animation film poem was shown at StAnza Poetry Festival (St Andrews, 2024); my artworks have been exhibited in galleries and online.

My English translations of contemporary Polish poetry have appeared in various anthologies, journals, on the Versopolis online platform and the London Underground. Queen Cells by Małgorzata Lebda is out from Broken Sleep Books in August 2024. Night Truck Driver (Zephyr Press; finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Translation, longlisted for the 2021 PEN America Poetry in Translation Award) features Marcin Świetlicki. My selection from Krystyna Miłobędzka, Nothing More (Arc, 2013), was shortlisted for the 2015 Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize. Salt Monody (Zephyr Press, 2006) presents Marzanna Kielar. I co-edited Carnivorous Boy Carnivorous Bird: Poetry from Poland (Zephyr Press, 2004) and guest-edited Polish issues of Poetry Wales and Modern Poetry in Translation. I regularly review translated poetry books.

I co-curate and run ‘Transreading’ courses on multilingual, translocal and hybrid poetries for the Poetry School in London. I am an accredited coach in writing process and creativity. I was a contributing editor at Poetry Wales and co-edited Przekładaniec, a peer-reviewed journal of literary translation (I have over thirty years of editing experience). I have cooperated, among others, with the British Council, European Literature Network, Literature Across Frontiers, Polish Cultural Institute (London), Polish Book Institute, Poetry School (London) and Scottish Poetry Library organizing readings, creative writing workshops and literary translation seminars.

My art can be seen on IG: @elzbietawojcikleese

I ran a microblog on (imaginary) Norths, poetry, translanguaging, art at https://www.facebook.com/elzbieta.wojcikleese