What Do We Do? - Instytut Książki

The Book Institute is a state cultural institution. We were established by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage to promote Polish literature abroad and popularise books and reading domestically.

We inform, encourage and convince translators of Polish literature to translate Polish books, foreign publishers to publish their translations, organisers of a whole spectrum of events around the world to invite Polish authors abroad. And when they say they are ready and willing, we help them move forward.

We inform, encourage, and persuade:

Translators of Polish literature –

to translate Polish books,
Foreign publishers –

to publish their translations,
Polish publishers –

to be unafraid to put out ambitious literature,
Organisers of literary events around the world –

to invite Polish authors,
Readers –

to actively read, read, and read some more,
Libraries and small bookshops –

to develop and to distribute the best in Polish literature.

Through the financial support we provide with the ©Poland Translation Programme, over 3,500 translations of Polish books have appeared abroad in years past! These include: Bednarek, Cherezińska, Chmielarz, Herbert, Kapuściński, Krajewski, Lipska, Miłosz, Miłoszewski, Mizielińscy, Rejmer, Sapkowski, Stasiuk, Szymborska, Tokarczuk, and many others.

Yet before many works of Polish literature can go abroad, they need promotion, which is why the Sample Translations ©POLAND Programme helps translators introduce Polish books to foreign publishers. This is, of course, only part of our work to promote Polish literature abroad and to integrate communities of translators of Polish literature.

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Let us not forget, as well, about the promotion and spread of literacy in Poland, and for this we need libraries. The Library Infrastructure Priority, whose aim is to transform district libraries in towns of up to 100,000 residents into modern centres with access to knowledge and culture, is carried out through the National Reading Development Programme; it is our response to the need for a radical improvement in the state of public libraries in Poland.

We have also developed, written up and implemented the MAK+ catalogue system for libraries, facilitating all the operations tied to running a public library. In 2010, the system was introduced to over 2,700 libraries. The purchase of library equipment was also supported through the Kraszewski programme – computers for libraries. Last but not least, we initiated the creation of Book Discussion Clubs in Poland. At present over 1,900 of them are up and running, bringing together literature lovers from across Poland!

We also promote reading: the ‘Small Book – Great Person’ campaign promotes the advantages that come from families reading together right from the first months of a child’s life. Launched in 2017, today it is one of the largest bookstart programmes in Europe; we have managed to give over five million Reading Expeditions to infants, preschoolers and first-graders, while encouraging parents to read with their children as a family.

More recently, we’ve added on another project: BookStadium. Inspired by football, this programme promotes readership among children and young people who love sports – our aim is to move beyond the well-worn paths and promote readership effectively, even in unexpected places.

For over a decade, we have been administrating grant programmes of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in literature, while since April 2010 we have been the publisher of some of the oldest and most recognised Polish culture periodicals, such as Nowe Książki, Twórczość, Literatura na Świecie, Dialog and Odra.

Furthermore, we publish Dziennik Literacki – a new web journal designed as a place for literary criticism in its broadest definition. Behind the creation of this title stands the conviction that there are too few places where we can write, discuss or dispute about books.

We invite bookish people to make contact and work with us – we are here for you.

The Book Institute had its first headquarters in the Łaski House, off the courtyard of Krakow’s Villa Decjusz. Shortly after the Book Institute proper was created, it was transferred to Szczepańska Street 1, just off the Main Square. In 2015, they moved to the heritage building purchased from Radio Kraków on Wróblewskiego Street 6.

The renovated main building goes back to 1900. It has three floors and a surface area of 693.39 m². In the courtyard, following the purchase, there was an outbuilding from around 1900 with a usable area of 107.5 m², a garage of 221.5 m² and a workshop of 218.18 m². After renovation these were transformed into a library and rooms for guests of the Institute as part of the Translator’s College programme.

The headquarters of the Book Institute on Wróblewski Street 6 in Krakow

In the first years of the Book Institute’s operations the Warsaw office was also opened at the Palace of Science and Art, presently located at Foksal Street 17.

Since 2020, the Book Institute has also been the owner of Tadeusz Konwicki’s old flat on Wojciecha Górskiego Street. Building number 1 is a special address on the map of Warsaw, as it was home to the great prose and script writer and film director, Tadeusz Konwicki.

The artist passed away on 7 January 2015, but his flat where he lived and worked for several decades is still of service to literature. In 2018, it was purchased and restored by the Book Institute with funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and in 2019 it was joined to the Translator’s College residency programme.

The flat was arranged together with the writer’s daughter, Maria Konwicka, holding onto some of the original furnishings. The aim of the project is to commemorate Tadeusz Konwicki and his work, and to retain the special character of a place that had great sentimental value to the writer.

The flat has hosted such translators of Polish literature as: Oleś Herasym (Ukraine) – translator of Tadeusz Borowski, Gustaw Herling Grudziński and Andrzej Bobkowski; Philip Boehm (USA) – winner of the Found in Translation award in 2014 and translator of such writers as Stefan Chwin and Hanna Krall; Jennifer Croft (USA) – winner of the Found in Translation award in 2018 for Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights (which took the Man Booker Prize); Irena Aleksaitė (Lithuania) – who was named Translator of the Year 2018 in Lithuania for Witold Gombrowicz’s Polish Memories.

Located in a post-war building on Górskiego Street in Warsaw, the flat has a surface area of 58.5 m² and includes a foyer, three rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and balcony, where Chris Niedenthal famously photographed Konwicki with his cat.

Beginning 1 April 2010, the Book Institute began publishing periodicals patronised by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

On 1 June 2024, the Book Institute began operating as a state culture institution, after the merger of the Book Institute and the Institute of Literature. The director was named Grzegorz Jankowicz, and the vice-directors became Agnieszka Rasińska-Bóbr, Marcin Hamkało and Marta Skibińska.

The previous directors were: Andrzej Nowakowski (2004–5), Magdalena Ślusarska (2005–8), Grzegorz Gauden (2008–16), Dariusz Jaworski (2016–24), Robert Kaźmierczak (in 2024, as a replacement).

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We are here for you

We work to support Polish literature.

We promote Polish literature around the world

But that's not all!

Our headquarters

The Warsaw office

Tadeusz Konwicki’s flat

Magazines of the Book Institute

Structure

Our programs

Albrecht Lempp Scholarship

Book Discussion Clubs

Books from Poland

Bookstadion

Czasopisma 2025

Dziennik Literacki

Found in Translation

Infrastruktura Bibliotek 2021–2025

Literatura 2025

MAK+

Non stop – literatura polska za granicą

Partnerstwo dla książki 2025

Posestry

Promocja czytelnictwa 2025

Publishing Proposals

Sample Translations ©Poland

Seminars for foreign publishers

Small Bookshop Certificate 2025-2026

Szukam książki

The ‘Kraszewski: Computers for Libraries’

The ‘Other Traditions’

The ©POLAND Translation Programme

The Adam Wodnicki scholarship

The Congress of Translators

The Little Book – Great Person

The Transatlantyk Award

Translators’ Collegium

Patronage magazines

Akcent

Dialog

Literatura na Świecie

Nowe Książki

Odra

Teatr

Teatr lalek

Topos

Twórczość

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