Barbara Rozalia Terakowska (1938–2004), known as Dorota Terakowska, was a Polish writer and journalist best known for her fantasy books for children and young adults, two of which became required reading at Polish schools. Her novel Córka czarownic was included in the IBBY Honour List and received the Polish IBBY section literary award; it also became her most translated work. Before focusing on literature in 1980s, Terakowska wrote for various newspapers and magazines such as Gazeta Krakowska and Przekrój. Early life and education Terakowska was born on 30 August 1938, in Kraków. She was expelled from her secondary school and continued her education in a secondary school for adults. She began to work early and also quickly started taking part in the cultural life of Kraków, in May 1956 she joined the youth organisational committee at the Piwnica pod Baranami, where she bartended and also sang two songs in shows. In 1965, she completed a sociology degree at the Jagiellonian University. Career In 1962, Terakowska debuted with a short story called Opowiadanie pod tytułem: Opowiadanie, which was published in Przekrój. In 1969, after working for a couple years as a sociologist, she started writing for the Gazeta Krakowska daily until the period of martial law in Poland. In 1969–1981 she was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party. For years, Terakowska wrote articles, reviews, reportage and interviews for Przekrój, Zdanie and Zeszyty Prasoznawcze. In the late 1970s, she received numerous awards in reportage competitions. During martial law, she made a living by knitting sweaters. In 1990, Terakowska was among the founders of the Czas Krakowski, to which she also contributed as a journalist. A year later, she resumed working at the Gazeta Krakowska. In the 1990s, she also worked, among others, as an editor for comics and resumed collaborating with Przekrój. A collection of her Przekrój columns from that period were later published as Muzeum Rzeczy Nieistniejących (2006). Around 1979, Terakowska started writing for children and young adults, but most of her works were not approved for publication by the Censorship in Communist Poland and started to be published almost a decade later. She began writing for children because of the political situation and also because she was dismissed from the editorial staff. Although the first novel she wrote was Babci Brygidy szalona podróż po Krakowie aimed at young adults, it was the 1983 collection of her journalistic text,