Book Launch Dedicated to the Distinguished PJAIT Professor, Prof. Marcin Giżycki (1951–2022)

During the Mountains of Literature Festival, the book *Facet w zadymie. Przyjaciele dla Marcina* (A Man in the Smoke: Friends for Marcin) was launched; it is dedicated to the distinguished PJAIT lecturer, Prof. Marcin Giżycki ( 1951–2022). Eliza Kącka spoke with Agnieszka Taborska, Anda Rottenberg, and Magdalena Barbaruk about the book, which features works dedicated to Marcin Giżycki.

Mountains of Literature is an interdisciplinary festival held in Lower Silesia that combines literature with social debates, art, education, theater, and music. Events take place in many towns across the region, and the program includes author talks, discussions, workshops, exhibitions, readings, and concerts. The festival is organized by the Olga Tokarczuk Foundation in collaboration withthe Mountains of Literature Festival Foundation.

This publication, co-funded byPJAIT reminiscences about the deceased and analyses of his work, as well as limericks and visual art. This is because Marcin Giżycki’s close circle included both writers and visual artists. The resulting mosaic of words and images offers an alternative to a traditional memorial book. In this way, the authors have succeeded in creating a multifaceted portrait of the subject —a filmmaker, art historian, critic, photographer, essayist, poet, university professor, traveler, journalist, and blues enthusiast. A one-man band. It is, therefore, a book also for those who did not know “the guy in the thick of things,” but who are interested in art, film, photography, poetry, America, history, and—extending life through storytelling.