Antoni Libera (1949) is a writer, translator and stage director. Among his translations into Polish are all of Samuel Beckett's plays and much of his prose. He has also directed many of Beckett’s plays, both in Poland and abroad (among others Krapp’s Last Tape with David Warrilow at the Haymarket Leicester and Riverside Studios 1989-1990, and Endgame with Barry MacGovern at the Gate Theater, presented at the Barbican in 1999), and has presented them at a number of international theatre festivals. Beckett, with whom he was in regular contact, called him “my deputy in Eastern Europe”. He has also translated and written librettos, among others for the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. In 1990 he made his debut as a playwright at the Royal Court Theatre in London with his “Platonic dialogue” entitled Eastern Promises (published by Methuen).  His 1998 novel Madame was awarded a number of prizes in Poland and translated into 20 languages. It was published in English by Farrar Straus & Giroux (1999) and Canongate (2000). In 2002 it was shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and in 2004 nominated for the Prix de Littérature Européenne.