Poland looms large in the public imagination as a place of Jewish history, but few know the scope and shape of Jewish life and culture in the country today. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with Mikołaj Grynberg, one of Poland's and Europe's leading contemporary Jewish literary figures, as we explore what it means to be Jewish in Poland today. In this rare US appearance, Grynberg will discuss issues of identity, memory, creativity, family, antisemitism, the Holocaust, and beyond, together with his translator Sean Gasper Bye. In particular, we'll explore two of Grynberg's recent works now available in English translation, I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To (Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) and the newly released Confidential. Books will also be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Presented in partnership with the Amesbury Chair in Polish Culture at UMass-Amherst.

Mikołaj Grynberg is a photographer, filmmaker, author, and trained psychologist. He has published three collections: Survivors of the 20th Century, I Accuse Auschwitz, and The Book of Exodus. I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To, his first work of fiction, was a finalist for the Nike, Poland’s top literary prize, and in English translation by Sean Bye, was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Translation Award. Grynberg made his directorial debut in 2021 with Proof of Identity, a film produced POLIN: the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. His most recent work of fiction available in English is Confidential (New Press, 2025). He lives in Poland.

Sean Gasper Bye is a translator from Polish. His translations have won the EBRD Literary Prize and the Asymptote Close Approximations Prize; and been shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, a National Jewish Book Award, the Sami Rohr Prize and the National Translation Award. He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellow and Translator-in-Residence at Princeton University. He is Membership and Development Director of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), having previously served as Interim Executive Director. He mentors emerging translators through the National Centre for Writing and the Yiddish Book Center. He lives in Philadelphia.
Mikołaj Grynberg, one of Poland's and Europe's leading contemporary Jewish literary figures, as we explore what it means to be Jewish in Poland today. In this rare US appearance, Grynberg will discuss issues of identity, memory, creativity, family, antisemitism, the Holocaust, and beyond, together with his translator Sean Gasper Bye. In particular, we'll explore two of Grynberg's recent works now available in English translation, I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To (Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) and the newly released Confidential. Books will also be available for purchase and signing at the event.