About Karakter
We believe in the power of true literature. To be a publisher means to have a mission, namely that of an explorer and scrutinizer of reality.
The name we chose is not accidental. Karakter in medieval Polish means ‘typeface’, but also refers to human personality. We want to publish fiction that – to paraphrase Schopenhauer – would allow readers to use their time, not only spend it. We like novels that break our habits, change the way we look at the world. We want to explore new literary territories, discover what happens outside the mainstream of literature; in Africa or Asia. That’s where one of the most interesting literatures of today is born, one which tells us something significant about life and about the world. We believe that our experience combined with hard work will allow us to succeed.
About us
Małgorzata Szczurek, Editor-in-Chief: I studied French literature, but it was nine years of work for Znak Publishers that taught me the ins and outs of the publishing business. I started as an editor, then I held the position of Editorial Director for Fiction. Since the beginning of 2008 I work as a freelancer for the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków.
The biggest adventure of my life so far had been a one-month contract in French Guyana, where I worked as an interpreter at the construction site of the Guiana Space Centre, an Ariane 5 rocket spaceport. Establishing your own publishing house is a bit like launching a rocket, I guess.
What do I like? Writers that stand apart. A few names and everything is clear: Białoszewski, Beckett, Celan, Coetzee, Cortazar, Czapski, Frisch, Gombrowicz, Herbert, Fleur Jaeggy, Jelinek, Kafka, Kawafis, Lautréamont, Leśmian, Rimbaud, Sabato, Nelly Sachs, Schulz, Sebald, Ugrešić, Simone Weil and many many more.
Magdalena Hajduk-Dębowska, Rights Director: I worked at Znak Publishers for seven years, dealing with rights. I loved it, but on the other hand I felt that I reached the point where I could and should start working on my own. Being one-third of Karakter, I also represent translation rights for Czarne Publishing House, which I enjoy enormously.
What do I like? I like to explore new literary territories with authors like Raymond Chandler, Judy Budnitz, Siegfried Lenz, Chuck Palahniuk, Gunter Grass, William Faulkner, Mario Vargas Llosa, Pawel Huelle, Max Frisch, J.M. Coetzee, to name just a few.
Przemek Dębowski, Graphic Designer and Editor: though I also studied (Polish) literature and I worked in the fiction department at Znak for two years, I eventually decided that I prefer designing books to working with the text. For the last few years I designed over one hundred covers and books for some of the biggest Polish publishing houses.
It seems that I am my most demanding and troublesome client, but it is in Karakter where every single element of book design is my own creation and responsibility: a luxury I don’t have anywhere else.
What do I like? No visible pattern, at least for me. Writers: Buzzati, Chandler, Coetzee, Dick, Dostoyevsky, Dukaj, Eggers, Gracq, Moebius, Musil (Musil!), Palahniuk, Rilke, Słowacki, Strugacki brothers, Chris Ware, Gene Wolfe. Designers: Rodrigo Corral, Jost Hochuli, Chip Kidd, Peter Mendelsund, Witold Siemaszkiewicz, Kuba Sowiński.
