Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (February 4, 1505 – between September 8 and October 5, 1569) was a leading Polish poet and prose writer of the Renaissance, as well as a politician and musician. He was the first Polish author to write exclusively in the Polish language, and is considered (with Biernat of Lublin and Jan Kochanowski), to be one of the founders of Polish literary language and literature.

Rej was born into a noble family at Żurawno, near Halicz. His father had moved to Ruthenia from Nagłowice, near Kraków, Poland; invited by archbishop Jan Wątróbka. He married Barbara née Herburt there – the mother of Mikołaj. Though young Rej received little formal education in Lwów; and, at the age of 13 attended but one year at the Kraków Academy, he managed to educate himself by studying Latin literature.

Around 1524 Rej began his service at the court of voivode Andrzej Tęczyński in Sandomierz. There, he acquired most of his vast knowledge in the field of humanities. He returned to his family’s town of Topola and married Zofia Kosnówna (Kościeniówna), a relative of the archbishop of Gniezno. In 1531 Rej moved to Kobyle, in the Chełm area, which was bequeathed to his wife, and thereafter frequented the court of Hetman Mikołaj Sieniawski. In 1541 or 1548 Rej converted to Calvinism. He took part in synods and founded Protestant schools and communities on his lands.

Joanna Chmielewska is the pen name of Irena Kühn neé Becker (born 2 April 1932 in Warsaw), a Polish writer and screenplay author. Her work is often described as "ironic detective stories". Her novels, which have been translated into at least nine languages, have sold more than 6 million copies in Poland and over 10 million copies in Russia.

Joanna Chmielewska graduated as an architect in 1954 from Warsaw University of Technology, and worked as a designer before devoting herself to writing. Her first short story was published in the magazine Kultura i Życie (Culture and Life) in 1958 and her first novel, Klin (The Wedge), in 1964. She loves horse races and gambling: both hobbies have been mentioned extensively in her books. She is also a connoisseur of amber, a passion which form the basis for her 1998 novel Złota mucha (The Golden Fly).

To date, she has written more than fifty novels. Most frequently, the protagonist is a woman called Joanna that inherits many characteristics from Chmielewska herself. She also often writes about Joanna's friends like Alicja (We Are All Suspects, All in Red), co-workers (We Are All Suspects, Wild Protein) or family (The Forefathers' Wells, Bad Luck).

Julian Tuwim (Polish: Julian Tuwim; September 13, 1894 – December 27, 1953) (the surname comes from the Hebrew "טובים", "tovim", "good"), known also under the pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics, was a Polish poet of Jewish parents, born in Łódź, Congress Poland (then, part of the Russian Empire). He was educated in Łódź and in Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at the Warsaw University. In 1919 Tuwim co-founded the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature, known especially for his contribution to children's literature. He was the recipient of a prestigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935.

Tuwim was born in Łódź, into a family of assimilated Jews. His parents Izydor and Adela, provided Julian with a comfortable middle class upbringing. He was not a particularly diligent student and had to repeat the sixth grade. In 1905 the family had to flee from Łódź to Breslau in order to escape possible repercussions following Izydor's involvement in the Revolution of 1905.

Mikołaj Gomółka (c. 1535 – after 30 April 1591, most probably 5 March 1609) was a Polish Renaissance composer, member of the royal court of Zygmunt II August, where he was a singer, flautist and trumpeter.

Gomółka was born in Sandomierz. Between 1545 and 1563 he stayed at the royal court, where initially he was a descantist, learned to play the flute, the 'sztort' (an old Polish wind instrument, prototype of the bassoon), the violin and the lute, and then he became a royal chapel musician with full rights. Having left the court he fulfilled various social and legal functions in Sandomierz; for some time he stayed at the court of the Kraków bishop Piotr Myszkowski (to whom he dedicated his work "Melodies for the Polish Psalter"); he conducted mining researches near Muszyna and also stayed at the court of Jan Zamoyski in Kraków, where he was still living in 30 April 1591; this is the last known date of his life.

The only preserved work by Gomółka is a collection of 150 independent compositions to the text of David's Psalter by Jan Kochanowski, for four-part unaccompanied mixed choir. The music is fully subordinated to the contents and the expressive layer of the text; he illustrates the mood or particular words by means of musical devices. In some works the composer applies dance rhythms characteristic of canzonetta. The "Melodies for the Polish Psalter" are a valuable monument of Old Polish culture showing the lay achievements of the renaissance adapted to the Polish conditions.