On October 10th, 2012, another one of our cyclical meetings was held in a special place – the Abbots’ Palace in Gdańsk Oliwa. But the occasion was also extraordinary. The guest of the Office was Andrzej Stasiuk – a novelist, a playwright, a winner of, amongst others the Kościelski Prize, the Nike Literary Award, the Gdynia Literary Prize, an author whose works have been translated into almost all European languages. That meeting inaugurated also a series of meetings to be held according to a new formula named TeKa idei (TaKing Up Ideas).
A large audience – including a fair-sized group of our friends from the University of Gdańsk – had an opportunity to listen to an unpublished text by Andrzej Stasiuk titled Wschód (East) (read by the Author himself). Afterwards Tomasz Swoboda conducted an interview with the writer, in the course of which we could listen (although with some problems resulting from the not-so-good acoustics of the Weddings Room) to some thoughts on the East mentioned in the title, death, writing, journeys and Poland. Andrzej Stasiuk demurred at having opinions which he could want to pass to his readers. He defined himself first of all as a writer – observer who has several personal matters to settle with this (but also with the other) world. He talked about his journeys to the East, which keeps fascinating and terrifying him – it is that topic that is to be the subject matter of his next book.
The already mentioned new formula of the meetings did not let the Guest to free himself from our company immediately after the interview. The meeting was continued at the Restaurant at the Abbots’ Palace, where further debates and discussions were led in a cocktail atmosphere.
