Monika Warneńska, courtesy of the Photograph by Mariusz Kubik, retrieved from Wikipedia Commons (accessed: June 28, 2018).
Monika Warneńska
[Pen-name of Kazimiera Jelonkiewicz] , 1922 - 2010
She was born March 4, 1922 in Myszkowo near Zawiercie (Upper Silesia) and died April 9, 2010 in Warsaw. Her real name was Kazimiera Jelonkiewicz, née Kosińska. She authored many books for young adults. She is best known for her journalistic work in Asia and the Far East.
From 1925 on she lived in Sosnowiec. During the German occupation she cotinued her studies in the underground educational system, focusing on the humanities. After the liberation of Poland she moved to Warsaw where she completed high school. She received her MA in history from the University of Warsaw. She debuted in 1945. Throughout the years she worked as a journalist for many newspapers and other periodicals; she was an editor at Polska Zbrojna, Trybuna Ludu, Perspektywy. She wrote for Płomyk, Przyjaciółka, Przyjaźń, Dziennik Ludowy. From 1950 she mainly used her pseudonym Monika Warneńska. From 1954 she travelled to Korea (1954, 1957), Vietnam (1962, 1965), Cambodia (1966), Laos (1969), Mongolia (1962, 1972), and Cuba (1972). She published many travel diaries and letters from these trips in Poznaj Świat, Kontynenty, Przekrój, Kultura, Dookoła Świata, Fakty, and Kontrasty. She published also in many foreign magazines, mainly in the Soviet Union.
She was the winner of multiple awards, among them, the Education and Arts Ministry Award, Third Grade (1967); the Foreign Reporters Club Award (1968); the Grand Prix Award of the International Organization of Journalists (1969); the Ministry of Defense Award (1974); the Prime Minister Award for Young Adult Fiction (1982). She was a very close friend of another Polish writer Halina Rudnicka.
Sources:
"Monika Warneńska", in Jadwiga Czachowska; Alicja Szałagan, eds., Współcześni polscy pisarze i badacze literatury. Słownik biobibliograficzny, vol 9: W–Z, Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 2004, 41–46.
"Monika Warneńska", in Lesław M. Bartelski, Polscy pisarze współcześni, 1939–1991. Leksykon, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1995, 446–448.
"Monika Warneńska", in Jadwiga Czachowska, ed., Słownik współczesnych pisarzy polskich, ser. II, vol. 3: U–Ż, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe 1980, 17–24.
Bio prepared by Helena Płotek, University of Warsaw, helenaplotek@student.uw.edu.pl
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