Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur
@agatumilowicz.bsky.social
Scholar & Writer ✍🏻
Ph.D. NYU Comparative Literature
I write on archive, nature, memory, and layers of Polish, Jewish and German heritage in my native Lower Silesia.
Words in The Brooklyn Rail, Triangle House Review, CEU Review of Books, Apofenie, etc
Ph.D. NYU Comparative Literature
I write on archive, nature, memory, and layers of Polish, Jewish and German heritage in my native Lower Silesia.
Words in The Brooklyn Rail, Triangle House Review, CEU Review of Books, Apofenie, etc
Thank you for your kind words 🙏🏻
November 27, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Thank you for your kind words 🙏🏻
You always have such amazing stories of your family and it really gives a much wider perspective to my work. I truly appreciate that, thank you!
November 27, 2025 at 11:37 AM
You always have such amazing stories of your family and it really gives a much wider perspective to my work. I truly appreciate that, thank you!
And in my writing I often deal with that question: What do I owe to my previous neighbors? I wrote about some of the attic finds and Mania’s notebook here - culture.pl/en/article/i... - but the journey, of course, continues.
If Attics Could Talk: The Misplaced Objects of Displaced People
The attics of the Lower Silesia tell a multitude of peculiar and complex stories. Even though they often look pretty ordinary, the objects they hold in a dusty embrace tend to form unlikely alliances....
culture.pl
November 27, 2025 at 11:01 AM
And in my writing I often deal with that question: What do I owe to my previous neighbors? I wrote about some of the attic finds and Mania’s notebook here - culture.pl/en/article/i... - but the journey, of course, continues.
What I still can’t get over, though, are the repeated pleas for memory. Many poems are accompanied by a form of the inscription "Please, remember me." And sure, we might just brush it off as not being directed at the current reader, but I can’t help feeling suddenly responsible.
November 27, 2025 at 10:54 AM
What I still can’t get over, though, are the repeated pleas for memory. Many poems are accompanied by a form of the inscription "Please, remember me." And sure, we might just brush it off as not being directed at the current reader, but I can’t help feeling suddenly responsible.
And honestly, it takes me ages to decipher this. But it’s so beautiful, just take a look at it:
November 27, 2025 at 10:54 AM
And honestly, it takes me ages to decipher this. But it’s so beautiful, just take a look at it:
Thus Mania was one of those Poles who moved West from the Eastern Borderlands – Kresy. Her notebook - and especially, the choice of poems - reflects the gloom of World War I but also, houses her friends' beautiful calligraphy. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
November 27, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Thus Mania was one of those Poles who moved West from the Eastern Borderlands – Kresy. Her notebook - and especially, the choice of poems - reflects the gloom of World War I but also, houses her friends' beautiful calligraphy. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
It's not a journal, but a notebook filled with Polish poems, meticulously copied by Mania's friends. The first notes were entered in 1917 in Drohobych (now Ukraine), then Mania and her notebook traveled to Sambor and Przemyśl. I found it 100 years later in Lower Silesia.
November 27, 2025 at 10:54 AM
It's not a journal, but a notebook filled with Polish poems, meticulously copied by Mania's friends. The first notes were entered in 1917 in Drohobych (now Ukraine), then Mania and her notebook traveled to Sambor and Przemyśl. I found it 100 years later in Lower Silesia.
Thank you, and likewise 🙏🏻
November 27, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Thank you, and likewise 🙏🏻
Aw, yay! Thank you so much! 😊 ♥️
November 27, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Aw, yay! Thank you so much! 😊 ♥️
Still thinking about that moment when I walked in to this “secret bathroom” and gasped.
I stumbled upon it in my research some time ago and couldn’t believe there are still places like that around, that look literally frozen in time.
Oh, and the mirror is almost 200 years old.
I stumbled upon it in my research some time ago and couldn’t believe there are still places like that around, that look literally frozen in time.
Oh, and the mirror is almost 200 years old.
November 23, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Still thinking about that moment when I walked in to this “secret bathroom” and gasped.
I stumbled upon it in my research some time ago and couldn’t believe there are still places like that around, that look literally frozen in time.
Oh, and the mirror is almost 200 years old.
I stumbled upon it in my research some time ago and couldn’t believe there are still places like that around, that look literally frozen in time.
Oh, and the mirror is almost 200 years old.
A whole separate chapter could be written about absences scattered across Lower Silesia’s public spaces. Something was written there once, I’m sure, but I might never know what it was. Glaring lacuna is staring back at me.
November 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
A whole separate chapter could be written about absences scattered across Lower Silesia’s public spaces. Something was written there once, I’m sure, but I might never know what it was. Glaring lacuna is staring back at me.
Thank you for reading!🙏🏻
November 18, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Thank you for reading!🙏🏻
I know, I know I probably just caught it in the midst of renovation, but in this land of doubles I couldn’t help but smile a little. It’s like a local dilemma embodied - to uncover the past and let it be seen or to let it be, out of sight, shrouded in the layers of dust?
November 17, 2025 at 4:27 PM
I know, I know I probably just caught it in the midst of renovation, but in this land of doubles I couldn’t help but smile a little. It’s like a local dilemma embodied - to uncover the past and let it be seen or to let it be, out of sight, shrouded in the layers of dust?
Today in the category of disappearing animals…
November 16, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Today in the category of disappearing animals…
My pleasure ♥️
November 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
My pleasure ♥️
See that kind of loss is, I feel, something my Polish and your German grandparents have in common. Did she talk about it a lot?
November 15, 2025 at 8:26 PM
See that kind of loss is, I feel, something my Polish and your German grandparents have in common. Did she talk about it a lot?
Monster-Thread 🤣 🫶and yes, there are still things left in Gorzów, although the center itself is very bleak. Have to go back there soon to do some Lubuskie-documenting 🫡
November 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Monster-Thread 🤣 🫶and yes, there are still things left in Gorzów, although the center itself is very bleak. Have to go back there soon to do some Lubuskie-documenting 🫡
The owner of this tavern in Karpacz told me a story how one day “something started coming out from underneath the old paint”, he then took the rag and started cleaning it…to find this old painting. Its look after the “renovation” is a bit problematic but the vibe is what counts (💯 Lower Silesian.)
November 13, 2025 at 12:18 PM
The owner of this tavern in Karpacz told me a story how one day “something started coming out from underneath the old paint”, he then took the rag and started cleaning it…to find this old painting. Its look after the “renovation” is a bit problematic but the vibe is what counts (💯 Lower Silesian.)
Thank you ♥️ I will let him know ☺️
November 8, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Thank you ♥️ I will let him know ☺️
Polish flag’s waved not to confuse passersby 😉
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
November 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Polish flag’s waved not to confuse passersby 😉
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
Two types of Lower Silesian owls, at your service. The second one was clearly pointing to something, now it’s holding an empty plaque, a common form of absence around here, inscribed into the fabric of the town.
November 5, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Two types of Lower Silesian owls, at your service. The second one was clearly pointing to something, now it’s holding an empty plaque, a common form of absence around here, inscribed into the fabric of the town.
When it’s sunny but in November 🤷🏼♀️
November 4, 2025 at 2:19 PM
When it’s sunny but in November 🤷🏼♀️
In the world of doubles, here’s my latest obsession - two different house numbers 🥲 might create a separate series of it, I’m not sure, but they are certainly not the easiest to spot. It’s as if the two addresses, the one from the past and the present, manage to somehow coexist.
November 4, 2025 at 11:19 AM
In the world of doubles, here’s my latest obsession - two different house numbers 🥲 might create a separate series of it, I’m not sure, but they are certainly not the easiest to spot. It’s as if the two addresses, the one from the past and the present, manage to somehow coexist.
Thank you for your kind words! It definitely motivates me to keep walking 🥰
November 4, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Thank you for your kind words! It definitely motivates me to keep walking 🥰