About Us

“Polish Gothic” is a literary magazine, designed and established in 2022, at the University of Gdańsk, with an original aim to present student creative engagement in English.

We are interested in the uncanny, in narratives that are both excessive and insightful, engaging and discerning, while never ceasing to be playful and entertaining.

The June edition of 2022 was our summer pilot presentation.

We are also happy to announce that at this point the magazine is expanding.

Our new 2025/01 issue appears on December 13th, 2025. This issue centers on the word loyalty—a concept that opens into questions of choice, demand, duty, betrayal, and the shifting terrain of freedom.

After a long pause, we are gathering again—this time with new voices, new collaborators, and a shared desire to explore the gothic as it lives in our daily encounters. 

The 2025/01 issue authors:  

Aris Kowalski

I am a third year English Philology student at the University of Gdansk, hoping to work as a translator in the near future. I am twenty years old and my journey with writing began almost ten years ago. I have written in both Polish and English, and I still have plenty of ideas in the back of my head. I would love to put them into words that actually make sense for others to (hopefully) enjoy as well.

Paulina Jakimowicz

I study Polish Philology at the University of Gdańsk. Sometimes I write articles for Uślicznienie and edit for Dzieła cytowane. I wrote and directed the play Nie lubiem teatru with my fellow graduates from Zarządzanie Instytucjami Artystycznymi. I’ve always been a fan of the strange, the surreal, and the scary.

Adrian Kafarski

I have been writing for four years, focusing on dark, tragic prose in English for the last two. My main passion is analyzing pop song lyrics, which heavily influences the rhythm and emotion of my work as well as it serves as a plot inspiration. Though I also write poetry, it’s my prose I use to explore darker themes, such as sacrifice and ambition. With my stories I usually opt for a plot twist; one that you don’t see coming, yet serves as a missing piece of a bigger picture.

Kamil Mania

I was born in Ruda Śląska, Silesian Voivodeship, in 2005. I attended Szkoła Podstawowa nr 24 im. ks. Lexa in Ruda Śląska, and later II Liceum Ogólnokształcące z Oddziałami Dwujęzycznymi im. Gustawa Morcinka, also in Ruda Śląska. After moving to the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, I began my studies at the University of Gdańsk, enrolling in American Studies. I am currently a second year BA student. 

Katarzyna ‘Catharsis’ Mikołajczyk

Hauntingly invested in horror and beyond, I am a personification of the essence of the Greek theatre, always chasing transformative experiences in everything around me, both comedic and tragic. My interests include video games, musicals, horror movies, and a music taste that ranges from K-pop to metal. Perpetually haunted by ghosts—my favorite movie is Scream, my favorite band is Ghost, and my Dead by Daylight favorite is Ghostface, with yet another Ghost close to my heart.

Oliwia Sewastynowicz

I have always been a better writer than talker; words behave for me only when caged on a page. Ever since I began writing as a child, I have been drawn to stories that linger in the shadows, growing more and more fascinated by the unnamed, the uncanny, the unknown. A lot of my works gravitate towards those quiet, uneasy spaces, and I am most at home when a story whispers, rather than declares, inviting the reader to imagine what lurks just out of sight.

Sarah Flamminio 

I have been writing for about twenty-five years. I would say that the key to my own writing is the characters. Sometimes I feel as though I  know them so well that I could recognize them in a cafe, however impossible that might be! I strive to make my characters people in the most important senses, in their personalities, histories, ideals and relationships. I know the advice is ‘write what you know’, and the crime syndicates of Edwardian London are nothing I could reasonably be expected to ‘know’ by experience. But I believe that the human condition is fundamentally unchanging. People make the choices they do, across time, in real life and in fiction, for concrete reasons, even if they lie about them. Sometimes this means I have to write very slowly as I work to keep my fiction grounded in what is knowable, like historical details. Sometimes, I have no trouble with the love of soul-mates.
 
 

The new CfP will be released on December 20, 2025. 

Please refer to our Submission section for Submission Guidelines.Contact for general queries: editor.polishgothic@ug.edu.pl

 

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Institute of English and American Studies
University of Gdańsk
ul. Wita Stwosza 51, room 384
80-308 Gdańsk