History

WYDAWNICTWO POGRANICZE [BORDERLAND PUBLISHERS]

The activities of the Borderland Publishers was initiated in 1993 with the books published under Krasnogruda Library series: Nie bój się Cygana by Adam Bartosz, Koziołek za dwa grosze by Grigorij Kanowicz and Boża podszewka by Teresa Lubkiewicz-Urbanowicz.

Particularly noteworthy are our four main series.

Meridian series – literature of the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe – poetry, fiction and essays. It included books translated from: Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Czech, Lithuanian, Yiddish, etc. The issue of this series is not only an attempt to print in Polish the most interesting texts in the literature of the region, but also a big effort made to create a milieu of writers, their translators, editors and readers interested in the literature of "the other Europe."

The Inicjał [Initial] series whose name points not only to attention paid to the value of the word, but also to its visual counterpoint expressed the print and design, individual for each publication. So far, the series includes such titles as: Zima w małym mieście na granicy by Zbigniew Machej, Wiersze sejneńskie by Tomas Venclova or Nitka by Wasyl Machno.

The Sąsiedzi [Neighbours] series started in 2000 with the publication of Sąsiedzi by Jan Tomasz Gross. Historia zagłady żydowskiego miasteczka – tells about the tragedy of the six hundred Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne murdered by their Polish neighbours on 10 July 1941. The publication prompted the most important debate on memory and responsibility that took place in Poland after the Second World War. The importance of the decision to publish the book for the process of revision and transformation of the Polish memory cannot be overstated today.

The Ornamenty Historii [Ornaments of History] series was initiated in 2006 with two titles: Od Bukaresztu do Laffitów. Jerzego Giedroycia rzeczpospolita epistolarna by Andrzej S. Kowalczyk  and Rekonstrukcja narodów. Polska, Ukraina, Litwa, Białoruś 1569–1999 by Timothy Snyder. In 2014, we published Antanas Baranauskas. Szlak wieszcza by the Lithuanian historian Egidijus Aleksandravičius.

Borderland used to publish one of the most important Central European magazines - "Krasnogruda" (now discontinued, its mission taken over to a large degree by the Meridian series).

Another important periodical published since 2002 is the annual "Sejny Almanac." As the name suggests its deals with local matters in a wider historical and cultural perspective. This specific chronicle of a small homeland does not avoid difficult issues of the past, but also records contemporary events relevant to Sejny and Sejny land. What is important, it is edited in town by local contributors and published in Polish and Lithuanian.

A separate cycle of publications concerns the work of Borderland itself. They reflect the mission of sharing our experience with others. Worth mentioning are here books documenting achievement of our key ventures and objectives of the Centre, such as: Co pamięta Sejna, Kroniki sejneńskie, Sejneńska księga gry szklanych paciorków, Księga Mostu czy Podręcznik dialogu. Zaufanie i tożsamość. [“What Sejna remembers", "The Sejny Chronicles," "The Sejny Book of the Glass Bead Game," or "A Handbook of Dialogue: Trust and Identity."]