Two Lives Shaped by World War Two: A Video

Recently, I was invited to do a poetry reading at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, New York. The reading, titled "Two Lives Shaped by World War Two," focused on my parents and their experiences as Polish slave laborers in Nazi Germany.

Here's a video of the poetry reading. It's about an hour long, 40 minutes of poems and then some time for questions.

The reading, organized by Gregory Tague of Editions Bibliotekos and sponsored by St. Francis College, was written up for the college site. The piece contains some background information about my mom and dad and a couple of photos of me. Please stop by and take a look.

Two Lives Shaped by World War Two: A Reading

LIGHTNING and ASHES:

Two Lives Shaped by World War II

->Reading, Book Signing, Discussion<-

Born in a refugee camp after World War II, John Guzlowski came with his family to the United States as a Displaced Person in 1951. His parents had been slave laborers in Nazi Germany. Growing up in the immigrant and refugee neighborhoods around Humboldt Park in Chicago, he met hardware store clerks with Auschwitz tattoos on their wrists, Polish cavalry officers who still mourned for their dead comrades, and women who had walked from Siberia to Iran to escape the Russians. His poetry, fiction, and essays try to remember them and their voices.

11 October 2011 – St. Francis College

Founders Hall Theater / Callahan Center

180 Remsen St., Brooklyn Heights

4:00pm – 6:00pm

- Free and Open to the Public – Refreshments -

John Z. Guzlowski is retired from Eastern Illinois University, where he taught contemporary American literature and poetry writing. In his books Lightning and Ashes, Third Winter of War: Buchenwald, and Language of Mules and Other Poems, he writes about his parents' experiences in German Concentration Camps. In 2001 he won the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award, and his poems have been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. He has also published extensively on contemporary American fiction in journals such as Shofar, Modern Fiction Studies, Polish Review, Critique, Polish American Studies, Studies in Jewish American Literature, and Ascent.

♦ The reading is presented by Editions Bibliotekos and sponsored by the English Department of St. Francis College. John’s reading and discussion will be the third such event initiated by Bibliotekos and hosted by St. Francis College.