Daniel Paliwoda

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