Esensja
Entry updated 17 November 2025. Tagged: Publication.
Polish Online Magazine (2000-current). Created in 2000 through the merger of two earlier online magazines, Framzeta (published 1999-2000 by the SF Framling fan club, ed. Konrad R. Wągrowski) and The Valetz Magazine (1998-2000, ed. Artur Długosz). The magazine has been edited continuously by Konrad Wągrowski (Artur Długosz has been its co-editor in its early years).
Esensja became one of Poland's most prominent online magazines devoted to Fantastika; its influence stemming from thematic range, editorial quality, and sustained activity since the beginning of the new millennium. It publishes original fiction (from short stories and poems to Comics and serialized novels), art galleries, reviews, Convention reports, interviews and essays, and participates in or co-organizes literary and fan events across Poland. Its broad cultural remit embraces literature, film, comics, and games, while retaining a strong focus on sf and fantasy. Its long-running columns include among others the series "Wiatr ze Wschodu" ["Wind from the East"] by Paweł Laudański, about Russian fantastika.
The magazine's layout and design have been repeatedly commended for professional polish and graphic coherence. Wągrowski, in his capacity as editor, as twice received the Śląkfa "Fan of the Year" award of the Polish Silesian Fantastika Club, with critics often commending that Esensja's quality, despite its common description as a Fanzine, makes it comparable to semiprofessional or professionals magazine (see Semiprozine). The magazine received two international genre Best Magazine awards: in 2020 at that year's Eurocon, and it 2024 from the European Science Fiction Society.
From its inception Esensja has appeared as a continuously numbered online magazine, released in regular monthly or bimonthly (for summer and winter holidays period) issues (i.e. 10 issues each year) offered in several digital formats; over time the magazine has been joined (but not replaced by) an online portal, sharing the same content. Since the launch of issue #1 in October 2000, the magazine's regular publication schedule has been remarkably consistent, and the magazine reaching 250 issues by fall of 2025 (not counting seven special issues – six grouped under Biblioteka Redakcji Esensji ["The Library of Esensja Editorial Team"], and one experimental thematic issue dedicated to Tomb Raider), making Esensja one of the longest-continuing Polish online magazines devoted to speculative fiction and popular culture. Additionally, the magazine also published three online anthologies as Biblioteka Klubu Esensji ["The Library of Esensja Club"], while critical texts have been collected in several print anthologies.
Among the authors who first appeared in its pages are Jakub Ćwiek, Izabela Sowa, and Milena Wójtowicz; its regular contributors included such Polish Fantastika writers and publicists as Jacek Dukaj, Anna Kańtoch, Agnieszka Hałas, and Michał Chaciński.
The magazine also runs a catalogue of Polish and translated fantastika media, called Esensjopedia, which as of mid-2025 had indexed nearly 100,000 items (books, films, comics, games, and music albums).
Similar to the even older and still enduring Polish online magazine Fahrenheit, Esensja represents the consolidation of Poland's early web-based fandom press into a durable, semi-professional outlet bridging fan and professional cultures. [PKo]
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