Zuzanna Bartoszek
36 Pokoi
Forthcoming: December 2025 (Polish Edition), May 2026 (English Edition)
36 Rooms blurs the boundaries between storytelling and prose poetry, transporting the reader to the outer edges of language. Bartoszek’s work arises from deep personal experiences, but encodes its meanings under metaphors, venturing as well into surreal, dreamlike landscapes. All the writing gathered in 36 Rooms is bound together—form and content alike—by a strong synesthesia, which the author describes as having “something of a brick-red color.” This pulsating creative force flows freely between literature and painting, fusing distinct arts into a sensory system.
Zuzanna Bartoszek deliberately abandons narrative order, choosing instead an open and fragmentary structure. The sequencing of the text, based on a chain of associations and recurring motifs, ensures that each new reading reveals fresh connections between tropes scattered throughout the texts. Such an open structure enables the reader to engage through active interpretive participation.
Each of the thirty-seven stories, from their very first sentences, invites the reader into the vast expanse of memory and poetic inspiration.
Zuzanna Bartoszek (b. 1993, Poznań) is an artist and writer whose practice includes painting, drawing, poetry, and prose poetry. Her work has been translated into German, French, and Czech. Her poetry collection, Klucz wisi na Słońcu (The Key Hangs on the Sun), was nominated for the prestigious Wisława Szymborska Award in 2022.
She is a recipient of the ING Polish Art Foundation Prize (2021) and has presented her works in numerous galleries and institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2023), Gaylord Apartments (Los Angeles, 2023), Kunsthalle Zurich (2018), Cell Project Space (London, 2017). In 2026 Bartoszek is joining the Rijksakademie residency programme in Amsterdam.