Piotr Florczyk is a poet, scholar, essayist, and translator. He teaches Global Literary Studies at UW-Seattle and lives with his family in Los Angeles. His new book, Dialogue and Influence: Essays on Polish and American Poets, will be out in May. Zócalo’s poetry curator for March, Florczyk chatted with us in the green room about swimming, history, and his circuitous writer’s journey.
What’s a song that gets you on the dance floor?
I love Depeche Mode, anything by them is great. I like Olivia Rodrigo’s stuff. My kids listen to a lot of Katy Perry and Taylor Swift and all that. I’m not a good dancer, but I like to dance. I’m one of those—I should probably just stay seated, but I can’t resist. So, anything fun, I like. Disco stuff is great.
What was the last thing that made you really laugh?
I have little kids. I have a daughter who’s 8, and I have a son who’s almost 3. They’re a lot of fun to be around. They say funny things. They act in funny ways. I don’t know if I can think of something specific. But the kids bring a lot of joy and laughter into my life.
Where did you first learn to swim?
I was born and raised in Poland. When I was a kid, swimming was a mandatory part of P.E. In third grade, I believe, once a week, we would go to a local pool, and we had swim lessons there. At the end of that year, those who exhibited some kind of athletic potential were invited to join a swim team and switch schools—basically go to a sports school. That’s what happened with me. I’ve always been a water bug. I love being in the pool water; I swim a lot to this day.
What did you study as undergrad?
I went to college on a full-ride swimming scholarship, and I got a BA in history—which has always been a hobby of mine, and there’s a lot of history in my poems and writing in general. I tried doing some practical things, too; I think I was an econ major for a while. I’m terrible at math. It was just me trying to do something useful with myself other than swim. In history, it was great. I really enjoyed that major.
What’s your earliest creative writing memory?
Because of swimming, I did not really get involved with creative writing or literature until I was in college. I did not take a creative writing workshop until I was in grad school. I did doodle. I had a notebook and a journal when I first came to the States in high school. I still have it, as a matter of fact. In terms of an official standard organized workshop, that did not happen until I was getting my MFA.
How did you decide on doing the MFA?
I wanted to get a PhD in history at UC San Diego, and I even met with a professor hoping that he would be my advisor. Long story short, I changed my mind at the last minute. I decided that, no, I don’t want to be a professional historian. I want to be a writer, and I want to do English. And so I applied to the MFA program at San Diego State. And then I worked as an instructor, as an adjunct, as a visiting assistant professor, for many, many years only to eventually go back to school and get another master’s in English, and a PhD.
What put you on that path?
I was finding my way toward all that for many years. When I was in elementary school in Poland, the equivalent of English, which would have been Polish, that class was my favorite. I had a great Polish class teacher. She was really wonderful, and she was really into poetry. So I remember reading poetry as a Polish kid before coming to America. And so I’ve always liked literature.
I didn’t have the confidence at the time [to pursue it in college]. I vaguely remember taking one of those mandatory survey courses like British literature, and I almost failed that class. My English wasn’t good enough. I remember reading Chaucer, and I’m like, “What is this?” I also had this very romantic idea that one could write without really being immersed in literature. And so I remember being dismayed by the scholarly discipline of English literature, and I was like, “This is so terrible. This isn’t fun.” Not only do I not understand any of these texts, I have to write critical papers—which is ironic [now] because I love writing criticism. In fact, I’m a huge proponent of people writing criticism, and I make my own students do it.
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