Our translator, Iwona Boruszkowska – Winner of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Award
wona Boruszkowska, the translator of The Charm of Morocco (Czar Maroka) by Sofia Yablonska, soon to be published by Workshops of Culture, has been awarded the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Prize. This prestigious distinction aims to support and promote valuable publishing initiatives that reflect Krakow’s literary character, its heritage, and its most important cultural figures and phenomena.
Iwona Boruszkowska is a literary and cultural scholar, essayist, and translator of literature. She works as an assistant professor at the Department of Literary Theory at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University, where she also heads the Center for Research on Cultural Discourses of Illness, which she founded. She is the editor-in-chief of the literary quarterly Czas Literatury (The Time of Literature).
The Charm of Morocco, translated by Boruszkowska, is a captivating travel reportage from the 1930s that enchants readers with its fresh perspective on Morocco. Sofia Yablonska depicts life in Marrakesh—the colorful markets, fire-eating performances, religious rituals, and the hidden lives of women confined to harems. The book is not only a journey through space but also a profound attempt to understand a foreign culture and reflect on where tourist exoticism ends and real life begins. It is also a story about confronting colonial Europe, which tried to mask inequality with golden ornaments and tradition.
The Charm of Morocco will be published later this year by Workshops of Culture as part of the Anchored (Zakotwiczone) series. It will be available for purchase at the following address.
About the author
Sofia Yablonska (1907–1971) was a Ukrainian-French writer, reporter, traveler, photographer, and one of the first female cinematographers. Born near Lviv in 1907, she moved to Paris after 1927. In the early 1930s, she embarked on a round-the-world journey as a documentarian and photographer, working in China, Indochina, Oceania, Australia, and North America. She published three major travel books: The Charm of Morocco (1932), From the Land of Rice and Opium (1936), and Distant Horizons (1939). She also contributed to Galician and French press. After 1950, she lived and worked on the island of Noirmoutier in France, where she turned to architectural design. She died tragically in 1971.
About the prize
The Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Prize is awarded to writers, illustrators, editors, and translators involved in the creation of a publication. The project’s main goal is to enrich Krakow’s literary heritage, cultivate its literary image, and support creative communities connected with literature and publishing. In addition to a financial award, the recipient is granted the honorary title of Writer, Illustrator, Editor, or Translator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature.
