About Gaja Kolodziej
Gaja Kolodziej (1989) is a Polish novelist residing in New Zealand. See her list of publications.
Since 2012 she has been a member of the Polish Writers’ Association, and in the tenure 2014-2017 she worked as its Board Secretary. Moreover, in 2015-2017 she was a board member of the Foundation of the House of Literature and Creative Work Houses.
In 2012-2022, Gaja Kołodziej was running a virtual creative writing school for adults and teenagers. In 2024, she designed a creative writing course and wrote a series of texbooks for aspiring authors. Apart from teaching, she organises writing contests, and considers authorship the essence of her life.
So far she has had over 100 author meetings countrywide.
Gaja Kolodziej has a master’s degree in psychology from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. In the academic year 2016-17, she took part in a postgraduate course in creative writing at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Science. Currently, she resides in New Zealand where she wrote her first novel in English, and defended her doctoral dissertation in creative writing at Massey University. In 2020, she obtained a pedagogical qualification at Advance HE in the UK, and became Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She participated also in a teachers’ training course organised by the European Association of Creative Writing Programmes, for she is a believer in lifelong learning.
Apart from writing, she pursues her other passions: she travels the world, practices martial arts, and learns Asian languages.
Professional memberships:
- Polish Writers’ Association
- European Association of Creative Writing Programmes
- Romance Writers of New Zealand
- Advance HE (formerly Higher Education Academy)