Fox in the Field

Roman Lis was born in Przemyśl in 1947. He was a prose writer, author of poetry, reviews, columns, diaries, and short stories. He made his debut in "Życie Przemyskie" in 1967 and was one of the founders of the "Zniesienie" literary group, active in Przemyśl from 1969 to 1975. In the late 1980s, he emigrated to France, where he worked and composed for the rest of his life. He died in Montrouge, near Paris, in 2023.

Literarily, he thrived equally in Przemyśl and Paris. While his writings were published in both Polish and émigré press, apart from a volume of poetry published in the 1970s, he had no other books to his credit until 2022. Furthermore, due to various unfortunate events, a significant portion of his writings were lost, while others survived only in fragments.

The opportunity to revisit the work of this Przemyśl-born writer arose thanks to Piotr Skalski and Adam Wiedemann, who, fascinated by Roman Lis's work, encouraged him to write and published his texts in the online periodical "Pole." While the men didn't reveal how they discovered Lis, thanks to their efforts, readers have the opportunity to rediscover the work of a writer who, until recently, was remembered only by a small circle of his friends and family.

The publisher of "Pola" is the Jakub Wojciechowski Association of Rural Writers, which brings together authors with rural backgrounds and promotes their work by publishing texts in anthologies and in the aforementioned online magazine (which can be found at: https://poledwumiesiecznik.com/ ).

The meeting at the Przemyśl library was therefore not only an encouragement to read Roman Lis's writing, but also a promotion of the bimonthly magazine itself, and thus of the authors published within. Local authors will certainly be interested in the fact that the editorial office is open to accepting texts for publication (short stories, excerpts from novels, plays, reviews, poems, and essays), a practice that Renata Bożek, president of the Association of Polish Writers and Writers, also encourages through social media. There is hope, therefore, that Roman Lis will not be the only writer from our region to be featured in "Pole."

"Lis le roman, Brother and Sister! / Lis le roman, Son and Daughter! / Lis le roman too, Whitewashed Sepulcher..." Roman Lis wrote in one of his poems. He also signed his writings with the pseudonym "Lis le Roman," which translates to "Read this novel," including the book "Institute of Human Hegemony," available at the Przemyśl Public Library.

Joanna Lorenowicz

Piotr Skalski is a translator, literary critic, philosopher, editor of literary journals, and co-founder and editor of the bimonthly literary journal "Pole." He is the author of dozens of literary and philosophical translations, both in books and in articles in the scholarly press.

Adam Wiedemann, writer, poet, literary and music critic, winner of numerous literary awards and three-time nominee for the NIKE Literary Award. Author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, books of literary criticism, collections of short stories, and numerous newspaper articles. Co-founder and editor of the bimonthly literary magazine "Pole."