Arguably the best volume of poetry by this Nobel Prize-winning poet in a dual language edition that will allow us to read her in translation and compare back to the original. With humor, irony, and compassion, she explores everyday moments alongside larger questions of history, memory, love, and human existence.

Pick your favorite to read to the group.

PACIM Library has a copy of the book, as well as other books by the author, available in both English and Polish.

Google Meet meeting details will be emailed to individuals who register using the button below.

This event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support our reading group and help cover costs, we invite you to make a donation.

Every contribution makes a difference!

The post Polish Literature in English Reading Group – October 2026 appeared first on PACIM.

Originally written in Yiddish by a Polish Jewish émigré, this story recounts the experience of a Jew in the 17th century, the period in which With Fire and Sword is set. Four years after the Chmielnicki massacres of the seventeenth century, Jacob, a slave and cowherd in a Polish village high in the mountains, falls in love with Wanda, his master’s daughter. Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can’t live without her, and the two escape together to a distant Jewish community. Racked by his consciousness of sin in taking a Gentile wife and by the difficulties of concealing her identity, Jacob nonetheless stands firm as the violence of the era threatens to destroy the ill-fated couple.

PACIM Library has a couple of copies of the novel, as well as other books by the author, available in both English and Polish.

Google Meet meeting details will be emailed to individuals who register using the button below.

This event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support our reading group and help cover costs, we invite you to make a donation.

Every contribution makes a difference!

The post Polish Literature in English Reading Group – September 2026 appeared first on PACIM.

We are pleased to announce that we will begin reading the Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz this summer.  Based on a consensus with the group, we will start with the first volume, With Fire and Sword and continue to meet on Wednesdays, with slight variation.  Here is the reading schedule based on the 1991 Kuniczak translation (chapters provided if you are using a different version):

6/17:  1-398 (Chapters 1-26)

7/29: 399-694 (Chapter 27-47)

8/19 695-1137 (Chapters 48-79)

We will watch the film at the end of the summer.

Google Meet meeting details will be emailed to individuals who register using the button below.

This event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support our reading group and help cover costs, we invite you to make a donation.

Every contribution makes a difference!

The post Polish Literature in English Reading Group – August 2026 appeared first on PACIM.

We are pleased to announce that we will begin reading the Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz this summer.  Based on a consensus with the group, we will start with the first volume, With Fire and Sword and continue to meet on Wednesdays, with slight variation.  Here is the reading schedule based on the 1991 Kuniczak translation (chapters provided if you are using a different version):

6/17:  1-398 (Chapters 1-26)

7/29: 399-694 (Chapter 27-47)

8/19 695-1137 (Chapters 48-79)

We will watch the film at the end of the summer.

Google Meet meeting details will be emailed to individuals who register using the button below.

This event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support our reading group and help cover costs, we invite you to make a donation.

Every contribution makes a difference!

The post Polish Literature in English Reading Group – July 2026 appeared first on PACIM.

We are pleased to announce that we will begin reading the Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz this summer.  Based on a consensus with the group, we will start with the first volume, With Fire and Sword and continue to meet on Wednesdays, with slight variation.  Here is the reading schedule based on the 1991 Kuniczak translation (chapters provided if you are using a different version):

6/17:  1-398 (Chapters 1-26)

7/29: 399-694 (Chapter 27-47)

8/19 695-1137 (Chapters 48-79)

We will watch the film at the end of the summer.

Google Meet meeting details will be emailed to individuals who register using the button below.

This event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support our reading group and help cover costs, we invite you to make a donation.

Every contribution makes a difference!

The post Polish Literature in English Reading Group – June 2026 appeared first on PACIM.

This novel was translated into English within a few years of being published and presages conditions in Poland in the 1980s (or reflects those that already existed).  A mixture of surrealism and the absurdity of the everyday, through which we will revisit what we thought we knew about Poland and the forging of Polishness through the fire of suffering.  Where possible we will compare with the surrealism of Witkacy from the previous month.

Google Meet meeting details will be emailed to individuals who register using the button below.

This event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support our reading group and help cover costs, we invite you to make a donation.

Every contribution makes a difference!

The post Polish Literature in English Reading Group – May 2026 appeared first on PACIM.