He was born on 28 June 1943 in
St. Valentin,
Austria. After
World War II, he moved to Poland, where he graduated from
Marie Curie High School No. 2 in
Gorzów Wielkopolski. He further studied
Polish philology at the
Adam Mickiewicz University in
Poznań. He made his literary debut in 1964 in Poznań's literary club
Od nowa, where he publicly read out one of his untitled poems. His first poem was published in 1966 (
Wczasowstąpienie) in a literary magazine
Pomorze. In 1968, he wrote
Pęd pogoni, pęd ucieczki ("The Impulse to Pursue, the Impulse to Flee"), which one year later appeared in his first book of poetry
Akt urodzenia ("The Birth Certificate"). He also published articles in an emigration
weekly Wiadomości ("The News"). In the 1970s and 1980s, he was actively involved in the opposition movement against communist authorities of the
Polish People's Republic. In 1971–1973 he worked at the editorial office of the
Kraków-based
Student magazine where he met many prominent members of the generation of the Polish
New Wave (1968–1976) including
Adam Zagajewski and
Stanisław Barańczak. He was the signatory of
Letter of 59, which was a reaction of Polish
intellectuals against the undemocratic changes in the
Constitution of the Polish People's Republic. As a direct consequence of this, his works were officially banned between 1976 and 1980. He collaborated with the
Workers' Defense Committee; and in the period between 1977 and 1981, he published articles in
Zapis magazine. In 1980, he took part in a
hunger strike in
St. Christopher's Church in
Podkowa Leśna as an act of solidarity with the detained
political dissidents Dariusz Kobzdej and
Mirosław Chojecki. He published numerous texts and articles in opposition magazines such as
Solidarności Wielkopolski ("Greater Poland Solidarity"),
Obserwator Wielkopolski ("Greater Poland's Observer") and
Bez Debitu ("Without Debit"). He also published his works in
Zeszyty Literackie ("Literary Notebooks"). In 1988, he co-founded
wydawnictwo a5 publishing house in
Poznań, which specialized in the publication of poetry books. Since 1991, he has been running a publishing company together with his wife Krystyna. Nowadays, Krynicki is seen as one of the foremost representatives of contemporary Polish poetry alongside
Adam Zagajewski and
Ewa Lipska. In 2015, he became a member of the
Polish Academy of Learning. == Themes ==