Writers at Work: Gosia Buzzanca 

We caught up with Writer at Work Gosia Buzzanca, who shared her unique journey into creative writing: from poetry to short fiction, motherhood to memoir, and Polish to English. There She Goes, My Beautiful World (Calon, 2025) is available to pre-order here.

Tell us about your writing life. When did it start? What does it look like now?

I started with poems. I was very young, maybe six or seven, and I distinctly remember writing them in my little notebook, and feeling not as much shame, but secrecy over them. I would have absolutely hated someone finding them, so I kept the notebook hidden, but the writing itself really excited me. Then one day, a few years later, I sent some of these things to a magazine for teenage girls that ran this incredible poetry section, and few months after that I opened a new edition of that magazine and there they were: my poems about the moon and a ladybird. I have never felt a high quite like it and I’m still chasing it. This was the thing for me, I knew it.

When I was 14, I read the debut novel by Dorota Masłowska, Snow White and Russian Red, and I could feel my brain altering with its fresh, vulgar, exciting language. Masłowska was only 19 when the novel was published and of course this gave me hope for myself. That’s when I moved onto writing prose. I published multiple short stories in literary magazines over the following two years, and won some awards. It was exciting, but after a while I started feeling like I was being told what to write about and of course, being a teenager, I rebuked it.

I stopped writing for almost ten years, then – until the birth of my first child opened up this creative space in me, and not writing was no longer an option. Even when I didn’t write I constantly thought about writing, and it was exhausting in a way; I’ve come to realise that not-writing is the cruellest form of self-harm I could dabble in.

These days I’m lucky enough to have to write often — my first book is out this year, I write regular book and music reviews for Buzz Magazine, I’m drafting my novel – so the itch is being scratched.

What kind of writing excites you most?

I love weird, short, sparse novels. I live for fragments, lists, details of everyday life. I love writing that’s close to the bone, I love realism. My entire life I wanted to be a person that reads classics, and I still try them from time to time, but nothing beats a new Annie Ernaux, a new Patricia Lockwood, a new Max Porter, a new Ali Smith.


“[I write] because I’m a nuisance to myself and others when I don’t.”


What are you working on right now?

I’m currently deep into copy-edits of my memoir, There She Goes, My Beautiful World, which is out in October this year. Once this is done, I’m excited to be moving on properly to my novel-in-progress and giving it the attention it begs me for. There is also my first ever ghost story I’ve been commissioned to write that takes place in a crematorium, and I am really looking forward to the research for this one.

Where do you write?

Currently, on a sofa with my laptop perched on my knee. I do have a room of my own-ish, and I tend to write my first drafts in there, but I will write everywhere if I have to. Laptop, pen and paper, notes app on my phone. Bed, sofa, desk, garden, coffee shop. However, I do love a good Cardiff Central Library session the most. It’s like a treat.

When do you write?

Anytime. I don’t have a set schedule. Deadlines are amazing, you will definitely find me pulling all-nighters before them, but other than that I just plod along whenever I’m least needed by the outside world.

And… why do you write? 

Because I’m a nuisance to myself and others when I don’t.  

Is there a book or author that has influenced you?

Growing up it was Hrabal, Kundera, Kapuściński, poetry of Czesław Miłosz and journals of Sylvia Plath. These days it’s everything by Sylvia Plath. Then there’s the aforementioned Ernaux, Porter, Smith, as well as Cynan Jones, Sheila Heti, Rachel Cusk, Miranda July. If I had to choose one book only it would be Nobody Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood which sent me in hysterics, and I still think about every single day. I love it when someone’s writing affects me physically.


“There they were: my poems about the moon and a ladybird. I have never felt a high quite like it and I’m still chasing it”


Tell us about something you are really proud of.

I think the transition from writing in Polish to writing exclusively in English successfully is something that still blows my mind a little because it proves to me that, in a way, my writing transcends language. Also winning the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers Prize was big because I remember picking up a copy of the W&A Yearbook in 2013 when I first returned to writing, so it felt like a nice full circle moment.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a writer developing your practice?

When I was still a baby writer in English, I dropped into Kerry Hudson’s DMs and she was super graceful to give me the time of the day then and ever since. She told me work hard, be kind, don’t be an arsehole, and I’m trying to stick to this as much as possible. She also told me to write 500 words a day because all of the words will add up eventually. Now, I dread to think how many words I have not written, but I still believe this is the best advice one can give — to just get on with it. Very often the answers present themselves as we work. Just keep going.

There are so many ways to have a creative career. What would life as a ‘working’ writer look like for you?

I’d love to be able to spend my days working on different projects without having to worry about paying the bills on time. Having enough income to cover mine and my family’s needs comfortably while having the freedom to explore different creative endeavours would feel like I really made it. I would love to write for film and stage – my biggest dream is one day co-writing a song with Taylor Swift. I want to keep on going with novels and maybe one day return to poetry.


Writers at Work is a creative development programme for Welsh writers at Hay Festival, with the support of Literature Wales and Folding Rock, funded by Arts Council of Wales.

Offering a fully-programmed ten days of creative development opportunities, Hay Festival Writers at Work allows the selected writers to engage in Festival events, attend workshops with publishers, agents and, crucially, with established international artists.

Check out some of our recommended events for this year’s Hay Festival here, including showcase readings from the 2025 Writers at Work cohort.

Gosia Buzzanca was born in Poznań, Poland. She began publishing short stories in 2002, before moving to the UK in 2008 and earning a Creative Writing MA with distinction. In 2022, she was the recipient of the W&A Working-Class Writers’ Prize. Her debut, a memoir, There She Goes, My Beautiful World, set in between Poland and Wales, will be published by Calon in October 2025. She now lives in Barry, South Wales and is working on her first novel.