Joanna Grochowicz is an author of four critically-acclaimed narrative non-fiction novels for young adults set during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. Fast-paced and exquisitely written, her work reveals in fascinating detail the human aspirations and tragedies that have shaped our understanding of the polar regions. Drawing on diaries, letters and expedition narratives from archives and personal collections around the world, Grochowicz brings to light new and often overlooked elements that lend her work a grittiness and authenticity that is not often present in historical writing for children and young adults.
Grochowicz encourages the same dynamic engagement in her debut adult offering, Nightsoil: A Cultural History of Shit, in which she challenges taboos and demonstrates the myriad ways human ordure has shaped civilisation and informed our attitudes and beliefs. As symbolic currency, as an antidote to established doctrine, and as a solution to the excess and waste of modern life, what we once referred to euphemistically as nightsoil is responsible both directly and indirectly for some of our species’ most sophisticated thinking and innovations. In an era of coercive technology and alienation from nature, shit can be a cri de coeur for the human animal. But first we must reconcile two opposing tendencies – one that longs to integrate filth into our lives, the other that seeks to silence its power.
Photo credit: Marzena Pogorzaly
