Daniel Paliwoda

Monday 20 November 2023 Steve was my second semester Freshman writing professor.  His devotion to truth, understanding, and education was awe-inspiring.  He did not allow you to settle for quick, simplistic answers.  He demanded that you explain yourself completely.  He expected you to show every step in your thought process.  No shortcuts, no skipping.  Until […]

MONDAY 20 November 2023 “You must write his obituary.  The world must remember him; otherwise, there’ll be no trace of him,” Steve’s neighbor demanded.  That last part was not true; however, I understood what he meant.  He repeated his command several times.  Each time he pressed me to write it, dread nauseated me.  “I’m afraid

Monday 13 November 2023 This time last year, I was drafting Book Two for my Living with Katyn manuscript.  At that point in time, I decided to call my manuscript chapters “Books,” being influenced by The Iliad and other classical texts which had similar divisions.  During this critical moment, I recognized and accepted the insight

“You can’t call Steve “Steve;” you need to change his name, too,” “King Arthur” suggested, after reading the first draft of the chapter I call BOOK TWO: An Explanation, Or the Education of Daniel Paliwoda.  “At this point, nearly everyone in my Katyn book manuscript (MSS) has changed names.  Steve needs a new name, too,”

When I wrote my Katyn book manuscript (MSS), I knew I needed to write about my friends, colleagues, former students—anyone not directly related to me but connected to my Katyn stories—in the Katyn MSS.  I felt uneasy about how to represent them, especially their names.  I didn’t write about them in an unflattering way; nonetheless,

My Katyn book manuscript is a memoir.  The draft narrates my two-year journey becoming interested in the Katyn Massacre.  The finished manuscript is an account of my personal stories and experiences starting chronologically with when I stepped foot on a historic New York State military post and feeling the presence of Thaddeus Kosciuszko (Tadeusz Kościuszko

While writing my Katyn book manuscript, I not only broke one of my own pedagogical rules I regularly recommend my college students to follow while writing their assignments: avoid being distracted by external stimuli, like phones, social media, and music.  In my case, music is a major diversion.  I can’t listen to Bach or any

In Spring 2022, I was teaching university introductory and intermediate writing courses, and on 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine.  I wondered if I had been teaching my war class instead, how would have my students reacted? How would I have acknowledged the “Special Military Operation”?  Of course, I allowed my writing students to voice

Writing the manuscript for my Katyn book took me sixteen years to finish.  Years of writer’s block consumed most of those years.  The actual time it took to write the manuscript was probably 2.5 years.  Completing the first draft, I have over six-hundred and thirty pages.  My first and longest serving book editor who lives

When “King Arthur”—dear friend, retired Army officer, and my book editor—asked, “When you’re finished writing the Katyn book, what’s next?”  Sitting on his Texas porch, I was bewildered by his simple question.  I didn’t know what to say because I hadn’t imagined my life after the Katyn book.  Three weeks after he asked me that