Marius Kociejowski (born 1949) is a Canadian-born poet, essayist and travel writer.

Kociejowski was born in 1949 in Bishop's Mills, Ontario, to a Polish father and an English mother. In 1973, he left Canada and later settled in London.[1] His first publication, Coast, won the Cheltenham Prize for Literature in 1991.[2] He works as an antiquarian bookseller specializing in poetry.[3] His interest in Syria has led him to research and write two books about the country,[4] and edit a Syrian anthology of travel writing. His book God's Zoo (2014) consists of a series of encounters with creative artists living in London who have become exiles from their cultural and geographical roots.[5]

Works

edit

Poetry

edit
  • Coast (Greville Press, 1990)
  • Doctor Honoris Causa (Anvil Press, 1993)
  • Music's Bride (Anvil Press, 1999). A Canadian edition of his poems, which collected the above
  • So Dance the Lords of Language (Porcupine's Quill in 2003) - a Canadian edition containing the above collections in a single volume.
  • Collected Poems (Carcanet, 2019)

Prose

edit
  • The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool: A Syrian Journey (Sutton, 2004; new edition by Eland in 2016)
  • Syria through Writers' Eyes (Eland, 2006) - an anthology edited by Kociejowski
  • The Pigeon Wars of Damascus (Biblioasis, 2010) - a sequel to The Street Philosopher
  • The Pebble Chance: Feuilletons and Other Prose (Biblioasis, 2014)
  • God’s Zoo: Artists, Exiles, Londoners (Carcanet, 2014)
  • Zoroaster's Children and Other Travels (Biblioasis, 2015)
  • A Factotum in the Book Trade: A Memoir (Biblioasis, 2022)[6]
  • The Serpent Coiled in Naples (Haus, 2022)

References

edit
  1. ^ Jones, Evan (February 2012). "in conversation with Marius Kociejowski". PN Review. 38 (3). Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  2. ^ "Interview with Marius Kociejowski, essayist and poet". Wasafiri. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  3. ^ Dirda, Michael. "Michael Dirda reviews 'The Pebble Chance' by Marius Kociejowski". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  4. ^ Ormsby, Eric. "Five Questions with Marius Kociejowski". conversationalreading.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  5. ^ Caddy, David (24 July 2014). "Marius Kociejowski's God's Zoo". tearsinthefence.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  6. ^ Garner, Dwight (18 July 2022). "Love the Smell of Old Books? This Bookseller Would Like You to Leave". The New York Times.