Wislawa Szymborska was born in Kornik in Western Poland on July 2, 1923. Since 1931 she has been living in Krakow. Between 1945 and 1948 she studied Polish Literature and Sociology. Szymborska made her début in March 1945 with a poem "Szukam slowa" ("I am Looking for a Word") in the daily Dziennik Polski. During 1953 and 1981 she worked as poetry editor and columnist in the Kraków literary weekly Zycie Literackie where the series of her essays "Lektury nadobowiazkowe" appeared. The series has been renewed lately in the addition to Gazeta Wyborcza"-Gazeta o Ksiazkach. The collection Lektury nadobowiazkowe was published in the form of a book four times. Szymborska has published 16 collections of poetry: Dlatego zyjemy (1952), Pytania zadawane sobie (1954), Wolanie do Yeti (1957), Sól (1962), Wiersze wybrane (1964), Poezje wybrane (1967), Sto pociech (1967), Poezje (1970), Wszelki wypadek (1972), Wybór wierszy (1973), Tarsjusz i inne wiersze (1976), Wielka liczba (1976), Poezje wybrane II (1983), Ludzie na moscie (1986), Koniec i poczatek (1993, 1996), Widok z ziarnkiem piasku. 102 wiersze (1999). Wislawa Szymborska has also translated French poetry.

Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Wyslawa Szymborska"

Nobel e-Museum, "Wyslavwa Szymborska: Biography, Nobel Lecture, Selected Poems"

http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/szym/szym.htm, "Wyslava Szymborska: Nobel Laureate," October 3, 1996

Books and Writers, "Wyslava Szymborska"

Poland in the Classroom: SUNY-Buffalo, "Wyslava Szymborska Pages"