Dorota Masłowska

Masłowska was born July 3, 1983 in Wejherowo, and grew up there. She applied for the University of Gdańsk's faculty of psychology and was accepted, but left the studies for Warsaw, where she joined the culture studies at the Warsaw University. She first appeared in the mass-media when her debut book Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną (translated to English as either White and Red in the UK or Snow White and Russian Red in the US) was published. Largely controversial, mostly because of the language seen by many as vulgar, cynical and simple, the book was praised by many intellectuals as innovative and fresh. Among the most active supporters of Masłowska were Marcin Świetlicki and Polityka weekly staff, most notably renowned writer Jerzy Pilch. A notable example of post-modernist literature, her book became a best-seller in Poland and won Masłowska several notable awards as well as general support among the critics. It was almost immediately translated onto several languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, English, Hungarian and Czech.

Her second novel Paw królowej (The Queen's Peacock) did not gain similar popularity and remained largely unnoticed. Currently Dorota Masłowska lives in Cracow, collaborating with a number of magazines, most notably the Przekrój and Wysokie Obcasy weeklies, as well as Lampa monthly and the quarterly B EAT magazine.

Her first play, "A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians" has been translated by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett and is due to be performed for the first time in the UK at Soho Theatre from 28 February - 29 March 2008 with a cast featuring Andrew Tiernan, Andrea Riseborough, Howard Ward, Valerie Lilley, Ishia Bennison, John Rogan and Jason Cheater