Poet... Educator... Scholar...

Anna Frajlich (a.k.a Anna Frajlich-Zajac) has lived in New York since 1970, after
emigrating from Poland with her husband and son in 1969 with the Jewish "exodus."
She received her MA from Warsaw University in the Polish literature, and defended
her Ph.D. dissertation in the Slavic Department of the New York University in 1990.
Her poetry, reviews, articles and essays have been published in various journals in
Poland, the United States, and Europe. Frajlich is a Sr. Lecturer Emerita at the
Department of Slavic Languages and Associate Faculty Member, Harriman Institute
at Columbia University in New York City, where she has taught Polish language and
literature for over three decades. She is the recipient of the 1981 Kościelski
Foundation of Switzerland literary prize. In 1984 she received a distinction for a young poet from the Union of Polish Writers in Exile based in London, England. She also received a 2003 Literary Prize from W. & N. Turzański Foundation (Toronto, Canada). The Prize committee acclaimed Anna Frajlich's work as one “of the most interesting phenomena in the contemporary Polish poetry,” and one which “reveals deep truth about the existence of an individual entangled in the tragic fate of contemporary civilization.” In 2015 she received Prize of the Union of Polish Writers in Exile, based in London. The citation states: Anna Frajlich’s “literary roots lie deep in Polish, Jewish and American culture, but it is in the Polish language that she finds a safe haven and belonging.... Her work has a deep humanitarian dimension.”

She is a member of Polish Writers Association, Polish PEN, and the American PEN,member of the board of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, a member of The
Kościuszko Foundation, and the American Assoc. of Slavic and East European
Languages.

She is an author of 18 books of poetry, five of them bilingual Polish–English, Polish
– French, Polish–Italian, Polish-Spanish, and Polish – Ukrainian. They all received very positive reviews.
In 2002 Anna Frajlich received The Knight Cross of the Order of Merit awarded by
the President of the Polish Republic, in 2008 she received the honorary title of the
Ambassador of Szczecin, Poland, and in 2017 the Distinguished Pole Award in USA
in the category of culture.

Szczecin University Medal awarded by Senate of Szczecin University, January 2020.

In September 2020 she was awarded the Jubilee Medal of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.

The Susanne Lotarski Distinguished Achievement Award by The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA, 2021)
The Oscar Halecki Prize of 2021 by the Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) awarded her book The Ghost of Shakespeare: collected essays.

In May 2022, Anna Frajlich received a literary award (Medal) from Wschodnia Fundacja Kultury Akcent in Lublin, Poland. The award was “ To an outstanding poet and humanist in recognition of her impressive creativity on both sides of the Atlantic”. 

In  2023 she received a Diploma from Encounter (The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize) for being in the finals with the book “My Father’s Name” translated into Ukrainian by Vasyl Makhno.

See more Honors and Publications

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