Mira Michałowska, née Zandel (1914–2007), was a Polish writer, journalist, satirist, and translator of American literature—including works by Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, George Bernard Shaw, and Joan Didion. Her book inspired *Wojna domowa* (Civil War), a TV series that achieved cult status across several generations. She wrote novels, children’s books, columns, short stories, and plays in both Polish and English. She introduced the program "Tele-Echo" to Polish Television. Her writing career spanned from the 1950s—starting with the magazine *Przekrój*—to her later publications in *Twój Styl*. An ambassador’s wife and a polyglot intellectual who counted writers and politicians among her friends, she was, in short, a woman of the world.
Few knew that she simultaneously suffered from lifelong depression and PTSD, as her entire family had perished in the Holocaust.
Monika Ksieniewicz-Mil paints an insightful portrait of this remarkable figure, vividly sketching the backdrop of the era—spanning the war years and the communist period in Poland—and demonstrating that history is never black and white.
We invite you to an author event with Monika Ksieniewicz-Mil discussing her book *Mira. Kobieta światowa. Opowieść o Mirze Michałowskiej* (Mira: A Woman of the World – The Story of Mira Michałowska). The event will take place on September 24, 2026, at 5:30 PM at the Wolność Library (Plac Wolności 4, Łódź).
The event is co-organized by the Interdisciplinary Gender Seminar.
Moderator: Izabela Desperak, PhD
