We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aleksandra Tryniecka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aleksandra below.

Aleksandra, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I decided to become a writer at the age of four. It might sound improbable, yet it was really so. I received a big white notebook from my parents and began writing my first novel. Meanwhile, I was illustrating the story. It took me days and the text contained some funny spelling mistakes, but that was the beginning of my path as a writer. Childhood dreams do come true. My first novel, the story of a little Hedgehog finding meaningful friendships, was there, in my hands.

Aleksandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Aleksandra Tryniecka, and I am children’s and academic book author, an assistant professor at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, and a deputy head of Literature Unit in Athens Institute for Education and Research. Literature is one of the greatest passions of my life, and I am fortunate to work in literary context in every area of my life. My debut novel. – “Bunky and the Walms: The Christmas Story” was published by Wipf and Stock/ Resource Publications in October 2021. The year 2023 saw the publication of my historical non-fiction “Women’s Literary Portraits in the Victorian and Neo-Victorian Novel” (Rowman and Littlefield), while in 2024 the second part of Bunky’s adventures – “Bunky and the Summer Wish” appeared on the literary scene (Wipf and Stock/ Resource Publications, July 2024). All of my works received numerous awards, including the Book of the Year for “Bunky and the Walms” and Children’s Adventure Book of the Year for “Bunky and the Summer Wish” from the Chrysalis BREW Project. I am very proud of creating my literary character Bunky – the imperfect yet noble-hearted hero of his own life – who mirrors the thoughts and perspectives of so many of my Readers and navigates his life as well as he can in order to live every day as a loving, magical and noble experience. I hoped to invite Bunky from the literary world onto our reality – I took a thread and a needle and made him, his Friends and their clothes. Then, I started YouTube channel dedicated to my literary characters and their all-year-round adventures (@aleksandratryniecka8940) and a website: www.aleksandratryniecka.com . Thanks to these media the Readers can stay in touch with Bunky also beyond the pages of the books!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My deep-rooted goal is to spark some positive magic through each and every book I write – especially concentrating on my Bunky series for Readers of all ages. I believe that writers possess a tremendous power inherent in the words they use. Sometimes this power is not only capable of transforming one’s inner, but also outer reality. Therefore, it should be used with caution and respect. My hope is to offer my Readers a positive, peaceful, noble and loving literary world which they can treat as their literary home and a safe place. I believe that Bunky’s story is capable of transforming the Readers’ realities and shifting their perception of the world. The more goodness, peace, empathy and integrity we will create in our literary works, the more instances of them we will be able to notice and locate in our lives. Whereas the world seems to be a chaotic, imperfect and dangerous place, the Readers are still capable of guarding their own private space and turning their lives into a “bunkyful” story guided by the principles of goodness and peace. Words do change life and the world in physical ways.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe that readers can do quite a lot to support authors. So much can be done, from purchasing a copy of a book, through writing a review, to recommending a given work to a friend or even liking and sharing a “bookish” post on social media. Authors’ lives are not easy and, as creatives, their truly need support from their audiences. All creatives do need support and encouragement. While authors are offering their literary worlds to the readers, the readers can also offer so much to the authors – every single review means the world to an author, while every sold book means the expansion and sharing of the literary world created for the readers. Authors and readers are there for each other, with a given book constituting their meeting point. Literary characters are their mutual friends. :-)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aleksandratryniecka.com
• Instagram: @aleksandratryniecka
• Twitter: @ATryniecka
• Youtube: @aleksandratryniecka8940

Image Credits

All photographs by: Aleksandra Tryniecka