Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841–1910) is one of the most prolific and esteemed Polish nineteenth-century prose writers. She was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature: in 1905 and in 1909. Her influence on Polish literary life was enormous. She inspired Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Reymont, Maria Dąbrowska, and many Polish female writers with her writing and her social justice work. Most of the Polish women’s literature of the post-1863 Uprising period was written with the encouragement and guidance of Orzeszkowa, the most widely appreciated and highly respected Polish woman writer of that time.
Anna Gąsienica Byrcyn is a published translator of Polish poetry and prose in English. She has been teaching Polish language and Polish literature for many years at various American universities, among them the University of Illinois, Indiana University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Loyola University, and Saint Xavier University.
Stephanie Kraft holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Rochester (New York) with a specialty in nineteenth-century literature. She is the translator of STONE TABLETS by Wojciech Żukrowski (Paul Dry Books, 2016).
Grażyna J. Kozaczka is a distinguished professor of English and the director of the All College Honors Program at Cazenovia College. She is the author of William Dean Howells and John Cheever: The Failure of the American Dream and numerous articles on Polish American literature. She has also authored Old World Stitchery, and articles on Polish folk dress and adornment.
