Karolina Kuszyk

Karolina Kuszyk was born in Legnica, Poland, in 1977. She works as a freelance writer, translator and lecturer at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). She publishes articles for German and Polish media, including Deutschlandradio Kultur and Die Zeit. She has also translated works by Max Frisch, Ilse Aichinger, Karen Duve and Bernhard Schlink into Polish. In 2019, Kuszyk made her literary debut with In den Häusern der anderen (German edition 2022). The book deals with the German legacy in Silesia, Pomerania, Neumark and East Prussia. What stories do the houses, streets, factories and churches, the furniture, kitchen utensils and pictures tell about their former owners? And how did people from other parts of the country make the towns and villages of the former occupiers their home? Kuszyk recounts how the biographies of people and objects are interwoven.

In 2020, Kuszyk was awarded the Arthur Kronthal Prize; in 2023, the Silesia Cultural Prize from the State of Lower Saxony; and in 2024, the Georg Dehio Book Prize.

In den Häusern der anderen
Berlin, 2022
(Translation: Bernhard Hartmann)