Poet, translator and publicist. He works for the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly. He teaches Polish Studies at the University of Olomouc. Burian translated the poetry of Czesław Miłosz into Czech.
Experts
Václav Burian
Juraj Buzalka
Associate professor of social anthropology at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava. He researches on social and political movements. He is collaborator of the Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA), editor-in-chief of the journal OS – Občianska spoločnosť and regular feuilletonist of the Czech bimonthly Listy. He is an author of Nation and Religion: The Politics of Commemoration in South-east Poland (Münster: Lit 2007). Currently he is preparing his monograph on workers and tolerance in Eastern Europe. Among his recent works are ‘Tasting Wine in Slovakia: Post-socialist Elite Consumption of Cultural Particularities’ (in Wine and Culture: Vineyard to Glass. Rachel E. Black and Robert C. Ulin eds, Bloomsbury Publishing 2013) and a book of essays Slovenská ideológia a kríza. Eseje z antropológie politiky (Slovak Ideology and Crisis. Essays in Anthropology of Politics, Bratislava: Kalligram 2012).
Josef Byrtus
Served as the Consul General of the Czech Republic in Katowice until 2007. He graduated from the Law Faculty of the Charles University and the University of Economics in Prague. He worked for the Ministry of Economy and Development (advisor on international cooperation, director of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, director of the board, advisor to the Prime Minister), Chief Director of the Office of the Ministry of International Relations. Subsequently, he begun his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (Director of the Office).
Bogdana Carpenter
Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. She is the author of The Poetic Avant-Garde in Poland and 1918–1939 and Monumenta Polonica: The First Four Centuries of Polish Poetry.She translates the contemporary Polish poetry. She was also theeditor and translator (with Madeline G. Levine) of Czesław Miłosz’s selected essays To Begin Where I Am.
Andrej Chadanowicz
Andrei Khadanovich – poet, translator of poetry, literary critic, essayist. Born on February 13, 1973 in Minsk. In 1995, he graduated from the philological department of the Belarusian State University, where he would then give lectures on the history of French literature for a long time. He taught in the famous Belarusian High School in Minsk. He conducted translation workshops in the Belarusian College and in the Belarusian PEN Club.
His poems have been translated into English, Czech, Spanish, Lithuanian, German, Slovak, Slovenian and Russian. He is a member of the Union of Belarusian Writers and the Belarusian PEN Club, and since 2021 also a member of the Polish PEN Club. He translated, sang and recorded the album “Mury” by Jacek Kaczmarski in Belarusian. His version of the title track has become an unofficial anthem of the Belarusian opposition.
He is the editor of poetry, dramas and essays, as well as translations into Belarusian, including an anthology of the young Belarusian poetry “Пуп неба”, which appeared in Polish under the title “Pępek nieba” (Wrocław 2006) and an anthology of Polish short stories in Belarusian translation “Dwadzieścia polskich opowiadań” (“Дваццаць польскіх апавяданьняў”, Minsk 2007).
Kholoud Charaf
Kholoud Charaf is a poet, art critic and social activist from Al Mjemr, Southern Syria. Her debut poetry collection entitled “The Remains of a Butterfly” (2016) received significant critical acclaim among critics, who appreciated the originality of the literary images and metaphors and also the author’s capacity to transform the difficult events of war into beautiful imaginary worlds generated from her childhood memories of her home village. Her poems are widely published in Syrian and pan-Arabic magazines and have been translated into English, French, Italian and Polish. Charaf became a guest writer in Krakow City of Refuge in March 2018 as part of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). For the book "Return to the Mountains. A Journal in the Shadow of War" she received the Ibn Battuta Prize in 2019. Her poems were translated into English, French, Italian and Polish. Her book "Reversed Sky" was published in June 2019 in ZNAK publishing house.
Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer
Dr hab. Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer is an Associate Professor at Koźmiński University and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She received her PhD in Sociology from The New School for Social Research (2014) with Albert Salomon Memorial Award in Sociology; she received her habilitation at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences (2025). Author of (Not) Kidding: Politics in Online Tabloids (Brill, 2024; Haymarket 2025), Reshaping Poland's Community after Communism: Ordinary Celebrations (Palgrave, 2019), Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz: Marxism and Sociology (Warsaw University Press, 2014; Brill, 2018). She is also the co-author of the Polish bestseller, Umówmy się na Polskę (Znak, 2023), published in English
as Let's Agree on Poland (Oxford University Press, 2025). Recipient of scholarships from the Minister of Science and Higher Education in Poland, the Kosciuszko Foundation and The New School. She studies everyday civic practices, news and news avoidance, as well as online politics. In addition, her research interests include social change and everyday culture. An experienced public speaker in Poland and abroad, she is a regular expert commentator for Polish and international media.
Jerzy Chmielewski
Deputy director in the Department of Europe in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. National coordinator for the Visegrad Group. Former Polish Ambassador in Zagreb, Croatia.
Leon Ciechanowski
Data Science expert, Cognitive Scientist, Philosopher, currently working at Kozminski University and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities SWPS (Psychology Department) in Warsaw. He is a graduate of Philosophy Studies in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw, and Intercollegiate Studies at the “Artes Liberales” Academy. Leon is working in the domain of Human-Computer Interaction, Phenomenology, and sense of agency/control. He is currently completing his PhD in Psychology at the SWPS University and is involved in the study of chatbots, robots and wearables in cooperation with MIT. He is also a consultant for various business sectors (banking, data analytics, telecommunication). In his spare time, Leon loves to popularize (Neuro)Science as a member of the “Brain!” Foundation.
Martin Cimerman
Martin Cimerman is a Slovak diplomat currently serving as Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Warsaw. Prior to this role, since 2019 up to 2021, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Bratislava, focusing on Central Europe. From 2014 to 2019, he held several positions at the National Council of the Slovak Republic (= Parliament), including Foreign Policy Advisor and Head of the Foreign Affairs and Interparliamentary Cooperation Unit. Earlier in his career, Martin worked in the private sector and gained experience through traineeships in governmental and non-governmental sector. He holds master’s degrees in European studies and Geopolitics from the Université de Reims 10 Champagne-Ardenne (FR) and in International Relations from he Mathias Belius University in Banska Bystrica (SK).
