Meeting with Joanna Gierak-Onoszko

On 14 October, at 18:00 we invite you to the Elbląg Library for a meeting with Joanna Gierak-Onoszko — reporter and author of the famous “27 deaths of Toby Obed” and the latest book “Wolta. Stories about women in change.” The conversation will be moderated by Aleksandra Buła.

“27 deaths of Toby Obed”, Joanna Gierak-Onoszko's debut reportage, won the author the “Nike Readers” Literary Award in 2020 and has been permanently included in the most important Polish journalistic books of recent years. It is a poignant story about the Canadian residential school system, which aimed to nationalize the children of Canada's Indigenous people, as well as the survivors who, after years, try to face their own past and the history of their country.

A few years later, the author returned with a book on a completely different subject. “Wolta” is a collection of reporter stories about women who find themselves at a turning point in life. About experiences that force you to stop, make a decision and often build your life anew. Gierak-Onoszko looks at their choices, falls and transformations, weaving personal stories with reflections on psychology, philosophy and mechanisms of coping with the crisis.

Though “The 27 Deaths of Toby Obed” and “Wolt” share the theme, place, and tone of the story, both books grow out of the other man's reporter curiosity. So during the meeting we will talk not only about the two books, but also about how the reporter's perspective changes when the story of trauma and collective responsibility comes the time for stories of personal change. We will ask about the characters to whom the author gives voice, about the limits of the reporter's interference in someone else's story, about what she looks for in her heroines and heroes, as well as about the different meanings of the word “change”.

The meeting takes place as part of the #czytELnia cycle implemented with the financial assistance of the Warmia and Mazury Regional Government.