Mark Lewandowski’s stories and essays have appeared in many journals, and have been listed as “Notable” in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best American Travel Writing, and twice in The Best American Essays. He has also had work recently republished in Redux and A Small Key Opens Big Doors, one of four anthologies celebrating the 50th birthday of the Peace Corps. Halibut Rodeo, his first short story collection, was published in 2010. Currently, Lewandoski is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana State University. During the 1999-2000 academic year, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Siauliai, Lithuania and, from 1991-1993, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University in 1991.
One scorching July day I clipped some newly laundered koszulki onto the line. Arek’s apartament was on the bottom floor of the ubiquitous Soviet-style building: grey, mundane, with bits crumbling off here and there. I sat on my pupa with Gramatyka Polska w Dialogach and tried my best to pretend that I could ever learn this goddamn język.
