Adam Zagajewski was born in Lvov, Poland (now Ukraine) and is recognised as the major Polish poet of his generation. Zagajewski first became known as one of the leading poets of the “Generation of '68”, moving to Paris in 1982 and becoming part of the Polish New Wave movement. His poem Try To Praise The Mutilated World, printed in The New Yorker, became famous after 9/11.
Among his honors and awards are a fellowship from the Berliner Kunstlerprogramm, the Kurt Tucholsky Prize, a Prix de la Liberté, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Since 1988, he has served as Visiting Associate Professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston. Five collections of his poetry have been translated into English as well as four collections of essays, the most recent being Without End: New and Selected Poems in 2002.
In 2002 returned to Krakow. He currently is a faculty member on the University of Chicago's famed Committee on Social Thought.