November 22–24, 2024 – Boston, MA – Polish Perspectives Booth at 2024 NCSS Conference – Volunteers from the American Council for Polish Culture once again created and staffed a Polish Perspectives booth at the Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. As in past years, Aquila Polonica donated several copies of its titles for the booth, along with a selection of items for sale in our new online store and summaries of the Polish experience in World War II, which were given away to teachers. You can read a more complete report from ACPC online or in pdf.

 

 

 

 

 

October 20, 2024 – Washington, D.C. – Author John Guzlowski was the featured speaker at the Polish American Arts Association (PAAA) of Washington, D.C.’s fall membership meeting, which took place at the Cleveland Park Library in Washington, D.C. He spoke about his newly published work, Who I Am: Lives Told in Kitchen Polish, as well as his earlier collection of poetry published by Aquila Polonica Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded, which in 2017 won both the Gold Ben Franklin Award for Poetry and the Montaigne Medal for Most Thought-Provoking Book of the Year.

 

September 10, 2024 – John Guzlowski interviewed on Quintessential Listening Poetry Online Radio – Just posted on YouTube, a wide-ranging interview with John Guzlowski, author of Echoes of Tattered Tongues, and poet Michael Lee Johnson, looking at their writing and the role of poetry in our culture. Click here to listen!

 

August 30, 2024 – Premiering the New 303 Squadron Book Trailer! – We’re super excited about our new book trailer for 303 Squadron! Today is the anniversary of the Squadron’s first victory on August 30, 1940 — the day before it was declared operational — when during a training exercise Lieutenant Ludwik Paszkiewicz downed a Messerschmitt 110. We thought it would be an appropriate time to premiere our fabulous new trailer. Check it out!

 

August 15, 2024 – Crozet, VA – The Ice Road at The Lodge at Old Trail – Alice Faintich drew a crowd of 60 to 70 people to her multimedia presentation at the Lodge at Old Trail, about her father Stefan Waydenfeld’s book The Ice Road. In this award-winning book, Waydenfeld chronicled his teen-age experiences during World War II as one of about 1.5 million Polish civilians deported to hard labor in Siberia by the Soviet Union.

 

 

 

 

February 22, 2024 – Vox Populi publishes four Guzlowski poems – Four poems written by John Guzlowski about his mother and World War II were published today by the journal Vox Populi. The poems echo the themes elucidated in Guzlowski’s book Echoes of Tattered Tongues, published by Aquila Polonica. Read the article online or in pdf….

 

February 21, 2024 – Prof. Barbara Milewski Named Schechter Fellow at USHMM – Swarthmore Professor Barbara Milewski, co-winner of the 2023 Aquila Polonica Article Prize, has been named the Joyce and Arthur Schechter Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies.

The Fellowship provides her the opportunity to complete research on her manuscript exploring music making in the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. Professor Milewski emphasized the importance of knowing Polish history. While researching Chopin, she explored how Poles used music to preserve a sense of national identity, even when no Polish state existed between 1795 and 1918. In much the same way, Polish political prisoners used music to maintain a sense of their identity in the concentration camps during WWII.  Read the article online or in pdf….

 

February 5, 2024 – Crozet, VA – The Ice Road at Glenbrook Book Club – Alice Faintich presented a program and led a discussion about her father’s book The Ice Road and the Soviet deportation of Polish civilians to Siberia during World War II at the well-attended Glenbrook Book Club in Crozet, VA.

 

 

December 2023 – European Journal of American Studies Interviews John Guzlowski – The new quarterly edition of the European Journal of American Studies features an interview with John Guzlowski, author of the award-winning Echoes of Tattered Tongues. Read the interview online or in pdf….

 

 

December 7, 2023 – Author Julian Kulski Featured in New Netflix Series – The inspiring story of Polish WWII hero Julian Kulski, author of The Color of Courage, is set to reach a global audience through the upcoming Netflix series World War II: From the Frontlines. The first episode of the series will highlight Kulski’s extraordinary bravery during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans. Click here for the series trailer. Read the entire article online or in pdf….

 

 

December 1–3, 2023 – Nashville, TN – Polish Perspectives at 2023 NCSS Conference – Once again, the American Council for Polish Culture organized and manned the Polish Perspectives booth at the Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. As in past years, Aquila Polonica donated several copies of its titles for the Polish Perspectives booth, along with two small posters of the Polish Air Force squadron insignia that will soon be for sale in our online store, which were given away to teachers. Cecilia Glembocki, who was one of the volunteers manning the booth, said the books were in such demand that they were all  gone by the end of the first day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 21, 2023 – Taiwanese Edition of The Auschwitz Volunteer Gets New Cover – Happy to share that Taiwanese publisher Acropolis has just reissued their Complex Chinese translation of The Auschwitz Volunteer with a terrific new cover!

 

 

 

 

November 14, 2023 – Aquila Polonica Article Prize Winner Announced – We’re thrilled to announce that Barbara Milewski, Daniel Underhill Professor of Music at Swarthmore College, and Bret Werb, Music Collection Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, have won the 2023 Aquila Polonica Article Prize for their article “Chopin’s Żydek, and Other Aprcryphal Tales,” Journal of Musicology (2022) 39 (3): 342–370. More details….  For the press release, click here.

 

 

November 5, 2023 – The Color of Courage Presented at Polish Museum of America – A copy of The Color of Courage by Julian Kulski was presented to Scoutmaster and President of the Board of the Polish Museum of America, Richard Owczesny, by Bozena Bienias who had filmed an interview with Kulski for a documentary about Poland in World War II. The book is currently on display in the library of the Polish Museum of America.

 

 

 August 17, 2023 – Hollywood Film About Pilecki Announced –  The Polish Film Institute and Hollywood’s Powder Hound Pictures have announced a joint venture to finance and produce a biographical film about Polish hero Witold Pilecki. Pilecki’s most comprehensive report on his secret undercover mission as a prisoner at Auschwitz was published by Aquila Polonica under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.  Read more online or in pdf….

 

 

May 11, 2023 – The Ice Road event in Charlottesville, VA –  Alice Waydenfeld Faintich was invited to present her one-hour multimedia program on the WWII Soviet forced deportations of Polish civilians to Siberia, based on her father’s book The Ice Road, at a meeting of the ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out) group in Charlottesville, Virginia. The audience had lots of questions about this virtually unknown aspect of WWII, which continued after the program as they all lunched together.

 

 

March 1, 2023 – The Ice Road at Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge – Alice Waydenfeld Faintich presented a one-hour multimedia program on the WWII Soviet forced deportations of Polish civilians to Siberia, based on her father’s book The Ice Road, at Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, Charlottesville, Virginia. In addition to the well-attended live event, the program was being streamed on the internal cable system and was also recorded for later watching by those who weren’t able to attend. 

 

 

 February 27, 2023 – Nominations Open for Aquila Polonica Article Prize – Nominations are now open for the 2023 Aquila Polonica Article Prize. The deadline for nominations and self-nominations is July 1, 2023. The Aquila Polonica Article Prize is awarded every other year to the author of the best English-language scholarly article published (either online or in print form in a peer-reviewed academic journal) during the previous two years on any aspect of Polish studies. Administered by the Polish Studies Association, which appoints the independent judges, the award carries a $500 honorarium donated by Aquila Polonica Publishing. Nominees must be members of the Polish Studies Association, and can renew or join here.  More details …

 

January 15, 2023 – Italian Edition of The Auschwitz Volunteer Gets New Cover – We’re excited to share that Italian publiser Piemme is doing a new edition of their translation of The Auschwitz Volunteer with a very attractive new cover!