Q&A Andrzej Sapkowsi
Sci-fi superstar author Andrzej Sapkowski is the Cross Media Author of the Day, but as he tells Tom Tivnan, the benefits of being adapted into other media come with hazards all of their own
Let me be your fantasy
tom tivnan Can you take me back to the beginning: how did your writing career begin, and why were you attracted to science-fiction and fantasy? Who were you inspired by? andrzej sapkowsi
My future biographer should name the first chapter of his work A Series of Unexpected Events. Because it was totally unexpected that in the winter of 1985, I would write my first novelete, for a literary competition announced by Fantastka, the leading Polish SF magazine. It was rather unexpected that this novelete would win the competition and have a tremendous impact on Polish fans. It was hardly expected that I would write and publish another 10 or so noveletes, and later
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publish them in the form of two books. It was unexpected that in 1992, I would become a full-time writer and begin The Witcher pentalogy. Well, the rest was expected. As to the rest of the question, me and fantasy, it was love at first sight. I remem- ber reading Tolkien for the first time, in the Sixties—I was uterly enchanted. Then Ursula Le Guin with the Earthsea series, Roger Zelazny with [The Chronicles of] Amber, Jack Vance with Lyonesse [Trilogy], Stephen R Donaldson with [The Chronicles of] Thomas Covenant. Fritz Leiber, Robert Silverberg, Glen Cook, Terry Brooks, John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Terry Pratch- et, David Eddings, and more. Who I was inspired by? By all, and none.
Many Polish authors at this London Book Fair, even the more famous ones in Poland, are not translated into English. That may be more a fault of Anglophone readers, but do you think there is something about SFF that enables your books to cross borders more easily? Surely, SFF authors have it easier. There are sci-fi conventions and there’s the internet. True lovers of SFF literature (and among them editors and publishers) are quite well aware of what is being writen and published and where, who’s popular, who’s praised, who’s awarded, who’s on bestseller lists. Despite the overwhelming hegemony of Anglophone SFF, they observe and know what’s going on in France, Italy, Russia, and so on. Poland is in that number.
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