June 30 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)

Ms. Szymborska is the fifth Polish-born writer to win the Nobel literature prize.

Itche Goldberg, 102, Polish-born American writer and Yiddish language preservationist.

Polish-born Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor Natan Gross, in his 2001 book Who Are You, Mr. Grymek?

April 13 - Michael Shir (born 1923), Polish-born Israeli writer, founder of children's magazine, Ezbeoni.

Jurek Becker, Polish-born German writer, film-author and GDR dissident (born 1937)

May 15 - Arno Lustiger, 88, Polish-born writer and historian of Judaism.

August 14 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)

Helen Kleinbort Krauze (born in Białystok) is a Polish-born Mexican writer and journalist.

July 24 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born Yiddish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)