“EXILES” PROJECT-WRITING ABOUT WOMAN'S LIVE EXPERIENCES ON THE WEST

“EXILES” PROJECT-WRITING ABOUT WOMAN'S LIVE EXPERIENCES ON THE WEST

I suppose a Polish Dating site is very unusual way to meet a man writing a book. But that’s what happened to me. I got a message one day about three months ago from a guy called Nick who said he was writing a book about East European women living in the West and that he was collecting stories from girls who wanted to write about it. At first I thought it was a really bad chat up line – he was a lot older than me! But it turned out that he was serious. Over the last few weeks I’ve got to know him a lot better and for me the book has become a source of fascination and also a way of finding out a lot more about myself. I did write a story for the book and it sort of changed me a bit as I will describe later. I’m also so involved now that I am the Polish editor and I really want to get some great stories for the project.

Nick is actually a director of a well known analyst company and the author of a number of business books. However, a four year relationship with a Czech girlfriend ignited an interest in not just the Czech Republic but all of the lands of Eastern Europe. His girlfriend who was first an au pair and then a university student - opened his mind to the profound experiences and changes that living in another culture brings. He thought that while living in the West can mean many things from opportunity or exploitation to adventure and maybe love there was always a sense – in the Czech girls he knew - of looking over the shoulder at a different world, a different home.’

And he agrees with me that there is relatively little understanding in the UK of the former Warsaw Pact countries. Nick’s view is that a lot of people go to Prague and maybe Budapest but mainly they are unaware of the countries and the cultures that existed before the Second World War.

A direct result of Nick’s interest is that he is establishing a publishing house called Carpathian which will specialise in literature concerned with Eastern Europe. One of the first publications will be a book called ‘Exiles’. Exiles is the book I’m writing for and it’s an anthology of stories written by women from Central and Eastern Europe about their experiences of living in the West – not necassarily in the UK – some of the stories are coming from the USA and Canada . The book is intended to provide an extraordinary insight into a very particular human experience. ‘Exile’ is a powerful word and it can often mean a forced exclusion from a homeland but in the book we mean it in a more philosophical way - any experience of being away from home for a prolonged period and for whatever reason. Having said that, we also acknowledge that a lot of women came to England from Poland in the 1940s and 50s under very different circumstances and we are as keen to hear from them as we are from the post 1989 generation.’

Exile (or being away from home) changes people – just as it has changed me. Freedom or coercion will change them in different ways. The opportunities for different experiences and different emotions - for both happiness and sadness - are manifested in a dimension that simply would not exist within the comfort or restriction of the normal homeland environment. We want to publish the thoughts and emotions of women for whom the reality of exile has opened the way for events, relationships, feelings that they simply would not have had otherwise.


Taking a part in this project was sort of chalenge for myself and i could tell alot about satisifaction which i got from writing my story.From the day when Nick contacted me telling all about his idea something important have changed in my life.At first it made me think carefuly and with distance about all my experiences i have had during my stay in England.I was also surprised that an English man could be interested in Estearn European woman in this oryginal way.The process of writing took more time than i thought it would,it was all becouse i had some short moments when i didn’t believe in myself but all help i got from Nick and corversations with him kept me working.When i got to the point of the end of my story i was both very happy and sad in the same time.Writing gave me such a pleasure that i didnt want to end up like that.I wanted to be involved more.I explored the parts of myself which were deep in side me for very long time-the magnificence of putting your words on the piece of paper which can describe your feelings,emotions,energy better than anything else.Because it works on others imaginations,it brings others to your world which they can see from inside of you.

All of us-“Exiles”-are here or on other parts of the world,away from our homeland for thousands of different reasons-mostly seeking for better life level,greater future,but also escaping from problems or willing to change something in our exsitence.Whatever the reason is i think we have to show how the experience of living abroad influence on our psychical,phisical and emotional duration.And i know it will bring interest not only from our compatriots and from different nationalities who with we mixed up but also from the main nationality of the cuntry which “hosts” us.Mostly they hardly know about our struggle on their land,they don’t realize how difficult it’s to get used to the new culture,how much we miss our families,how lost we feel if we don’t speak their language good enough,they don’t know about tragedy or hapiness which create the new lives of emigrants.That’s why we have to come out on the day light and share our emotions.It’s not only that.Writing your story whatever if it’s a proper story,a poetry or sort of emotional thoughts will open you for new experiences,will help you to understand what happend,why it happend and if you regret or maybe you are more than proud of it.

I realy would like to hear from those woman who would be interested in taking part in the “Exiles”project so if you are kind enough to tell to others how it really feels like to be away from your homeland then both Nick and me will be pleased to help you to develope the best way of describing your experiences. We want to hear about the myriad experiences that exile can bring. It could be anything. It could be going home and seeing a hometown through different eyes. It could be loneliness in a big city or the confidence of a new job. It could be the touch of a stranger or about falling in love. It might be about a forced journey into a nightmare of abuse. It might be abandonment or poverty or fulfillment. It could be about sexual awareness or discovery and it might be about fear of failing or about self realisation.
We want it to be as extraordinary as it can be – visceral, emotive writing. If you write about loneliness then let us feel it, if you write about nostalgia – make it real, if it is about a good experience or a bad one then let us imagine it.

We want this book to be the best book (perhaps the first book) ever written about the true experience of Eastern European women in Exile – whether that is in the UK or elsewhere. We want people to read it and to come away knowing what it’s really like.

Please contact me if you are interested in taking part in the "Exile" project

Maja Bagdziun-Polish Editor

Well done this Nick chap. :) I shall keep my eyes peeled for carpathian press publications,its about time some more was written in English about the "older" east and central europe. As my interest is Poland pre and during the war(and also,rather blokely also the Warsaw Pact in all its shades) I keep having people asking me for book recomendations,unfortunatly the lists I give are rather short and often with a warning that much of what you will read is tinged with Cold War paranoia and disinformation.

a great article Maja and the book sounds facinating. i love the name "Exile" which for me conjures up the negative conotations of hard-done-by victimhood that so many eastern europeans carry with them, especially the poles. an excellent and appropriate choice of title

thank you for your comments guys:) i really hope that i will get some responses from interested girls

I think the name Exile reminds of the grotesque site ''Exile,the last hope for mankind'' which is run by expats enjoying the pleasures of Moscow,so I do not think it is a good choice for name of the book.

I never heard about it;)The name of the book was Nick's idea,and so far i think it's pretty good,as it says in the article it has got philosophical meaning;)any way the name of the book might be changed,it not as important as getting stories from woman who'd like to share their experiences

It does though,supportive though I am,have a certain negative/aint we the hard done by ones feel to the title.Sure,Exiles could fit fine for the post war exile of those who opposed communisim or former Anders Army/Home Army people but to call todays people exiles is,well,over dramatic. Thats my 2 pence worth.