Sophie Podolski

Sophie Podolski (8 October 1953 – 29 December 1974) was a Belgian poet and graphic artist. She published only one book during her short lifetime, Le pays où tout est permis (1972; The Country Where Everything Is Allowed), in which the poems were reproduced in her own artistic handwriting for its original 1972 edition (a typeset edition followed in 1973).

Sophie Podolski studied graphic design at the Académie de Boitsfort and was associated with the artistic community at Montfaucon Research Center.

Podolski suffered from schizophrenia and spent time in psychiatric clinics in Paris and Brussels. She attempted suicide (the method is not disclosed in articles about her) in Brussels on 19 December 1974 and died 10 days later as a result.

Podolski left to Marc Dachy a number of unpublished poems and graphic artworks. Her work entitled Sophie Podolski Snow Queen was posthumously published as a special issue (no. 6, 1980) of the literary magazine Luna-Park.

Her poetry was much admired by the novelist and poet Roberto Bolaño, who referenced Podolski in his novels The Savage Detectives, Antwerp, and Distant Star, and in his short stories "Vagabond in France and Belgium" and "Dance Card" (both collected in Last Evenings on Earth).