Homines Urbani – Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska 01.10.2025
The Homines Urbani scholarship program, organized by the Villa Decius Association since 2002, supports writers, translators, and journalists. Its aim is to provide space for creative work, exchange of experiences, and intercultural dialogue. Residents develop their literary projects in the inspiring environment of Kraków, while engaging with the local artistic community.
Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska, born in 1967, is a graduate of Romance philology and since 1995 has been a reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza. She cooperates with the Polish School of Reportage at the Institute of Reportage. Since 2020, she has been a member of the jury of the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage. She is a member of the Polish PEN Club.
Her books have been among the winners and finalists of major awards such as the T. Torańska Newsweek Award, Nike, Angelus, Beata Pawlak Award, and the Warmia and Mazury Literary Prize. They have been translated into Czech, Slovak, German, and Serbian. Her reportage Mokradełko was staged in 2015 in Poznań by Mikołaj Grabowski, and in 2024 Kamila Tarabura directed the acclaimed feature film Essential Things based on it. A theatre in Prague is currently working on a stage adaptation of her book Ku Klux Klan.
During her Homines Urbani fellowship at Villa Decius, she is working on a new book entitled The World Before Us Did Not Exist, which will be published in 2026 by Agora Publishing House.
About the Homines Urbani project:
The Homines Urbani scholarship program, organized by the Villa Decius Association since 2002, supports writers, translators, and journalists. Its aim is to provide space for creative work, exchange of experiences, and intercultural dialogue. Residents develop their literary projects in the inspiring environment of Kraków, while engaging with the local artistic community.
Words from Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska:
“This is an attempt to tell the story of how the traumas of World War II still resonate in our families, in our society, and within ourselves. I try to express it through reportage, from the perspective of the generation born after the war – Generation X, to which I belong.We want to look at the experiences of our parents, often hidden from us, because in Poland traumas are most often transmitted between generations through silence. We reflect on this silence – what it does to us, and how important it is to uncover the old secrets, the things left unspoken.This is my first literary residency, and I did not expect it to be such an extraordinary experience. It is incredibly beautiful here – nature and architecture create harmony that fosters focus and calm. It is comfortable and inspiring, and meeting writers from Poland and abroad makes it possible to establish meaningful connections. This is also a perfect place to say farewell to summer.”
Her books have been among the winners and finalists of major awards such as the T. Torańska Newsweek Award, Nike, Angelus, Beata Pawlak Award, and the Warmia and Mazury Literary Prize. They have been translated into Czech, Slovak, German, and Serbian. Her reportage Mokradełko was staged in 2015 in Poznań by Mikołaj Grabowski, and in 2024 Kamila Tarabura directed the acclaimed feature film Essential Things based on it. A theatre in Prague is currently working on a stage adaptation of her book Ku Klux Klan.
During her Homines Urbani fellowship at Villa Decius, she is working on a new book entitled The World Before Us Did Not Exist, which will be published in 2026 by Agora Publishing House.
About the Homines Urbani project:
The Homines Urbani scholarship program, organized by the Villa Decius Association since 2002, supports writers, translators, and journalists. Its aim is to provide space for creative work, exchange of experiences, and intercultural dialogue. Residents develop their literary projects in the inspiring environment of Kraków, while engaging with the local artistic community.
Words from Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska:
“This is an attempt to tell the story of how the traumas of World War II still resonate in our families, in our society, and within ourselves. I try to express it through reportage, from the perspective of the generation born after the war – Generation X, to which I belong.We want to look at the experiences of our parents, often hidden from us, because in Poland traumas are most often transmitted between generations through silence. We reflect on this silence – what it does to us, and how important it is to uncover the old secrets, the things left unspoken.This is my first literary residency, and I did not expect it to be such an extraordinary experience. It is incredibly beautiful here – nature and architecture create harmony that fosters focus and calm. It is comfortable and inspiring, and meeting writers from Poland and abroad makes it possible to establish meaningful connections. This is also a perfect place to say farewell to summer.”