I write under the pen name Martin Smallridge. I am a Polish writer based in Ireland: a poet, dramatist, journalist, essayist, and an independent researcher in literary studies and the history of art. My name is Marcin Małek. I was born in Warsaw on 24 February 1975, and I have lived in Ireland since 2006, shaping a life between archives, libraries, and the streets of Portlaoise. My work moves between poetry, historical and gothic fiction, theatre, long-form literary essays, and translation. I carry Polish and Russian voices into English, with a close ear kept on rhythm and memory.
I first reached readers in Poland through a sequence of poetry volumes from the Kraków house Wydawnictwo Miniatura – Stowarzyszenie Siwobrodych Poetów, including Fabryka słów w stu jeden wierszach, My wszyscy z wierszy, Z powiek opłatki krwi, Spomiędzy rzeczy, as well as Jedną nogą, Nazwijcie mnie idiotą and Pamiętnik z niedokończonej wyprawy. Those dense, image-rich lyrics drew strength from painting, mysticism, and lived cityscapes. Later collections in Polish and English built a bridge toward my Ireland-centred books and the bilingual volume For Life and Death of a Poet.
Under the Smallridge name I write in English for Portlaoise-based Lyrics Editorial House, with titles such as We’ll Go Asleep: Poems and Ballads, For Life and Death of a Poet, Breaking Through the Inky Night: On Trivial Yet Deadly Serious Matters, and the Second World War novel The Mills Kept Grinding, alongside lecture-books and plays. My volumes sit in the National Library of Ireland and on the shelves of Portlaoise Library, and they also belong to the collections of the Polish National Library and numerous university and town libraries across Poland.
Beyond books, I have contributed over a hundred articles to different Polish and American monthlies. I have also written several pieces—articles, interviews, and reportage—on Portlaoise town and its people for the Leinster Express, carrying my attention to ordinary lives, shopfront conversations, and small civic dramas into local journalism. I also write reflective and technical prose on traditional archery for TIFAM Publishing and for The Irish Field Archery Monthly.