Judy Batalion: I Never Feel Like My Work Is Complete
In this interview, author Judy Batalion discusses how a curiosity about 1930s-Poland helped inspire her new novel, The Last Woman of Warsaw.
Judy Batalion is a New York Times-bestselling author of award-winning nonfiction and fiction. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Vogue, among others. Judy has a BA in the History of Science from Harvard, a PhD from the University of London, and has worked as a museum curator and university lecturer. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this interview, Judy discusses how a curiosity about 1930s-Poland helped inspire her new novel, The Last Woman of Warsaw, her advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Judy Batalion
Literary agent: Alia Hanna Habib
Book title: The Last Woman of Warsaw
Publisher: Dutton
Release date: April 7, 2026
Genre/category: Historical Fiction
Previous titles: The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women’s Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos; White Walls: A Memoir about Motherhood, Daughterhood and the Mess in Between
Elevator pitch: The Last Woman of Warsaw follows two very different Jewish women in Warsaw in the late 1930s as they unexpectedly come together in their search for love, meaning, and a sense of home, and as they grapple with the storm clouds gathering around them.
What prompted you to write this book?
While writing my last book, The Light of Days, the story of Jewish teenage girls who fought the Nazis from the ghettos in Poland, I kept asking: What kind of society had created these extraordinary and stylish young women? I became obsessed with 1930s Poland, and especially with Warsaw, an exhilarating locus of cultural florescence that’s been eclipsed by what came after. In 1938, Warsaw overflowed with theaters, vaudeville, cabaret, nightclubs with revolving dancefloors, and fashion shows—it was "the Paris of the North.” I wanted to delve into this dazzling setting that I’d known so little about (which also happens to be where my own grandparents lived) and share it with my readers.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I came up with the idea for this book right after my last book published, in the spring of 2021. So, from idea to publication, this novel was a five-year process; however, the book relies on research that I began carrying out in 2007, nearly 20 years earlier! Over the five years, the number of protagonists changed (from three to two) and I revised the central plotline at least a dozen times. But the essence of the story, the timing, the setting, the beginning and the ending, and the main historical events were always anchors. Fanny and Zosia, my primary characters, have lived in my head from day one.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
It was my first novel, and so the process was a little different from nonfiction. It was a relief not to have to footnote every sentence! (Having said that, I did provide a pretty long author’s note at the end where I talked about my research, my inspirations and my sources.)
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I’m not sure if this is really counts as a surprise, but when I reflect back on my many, many rewrites of the book, a lot of the editing work was not in adding twists and turns, but in simplifying what I already had on the page to create momentum and drama. I often think I need more, when really I need less.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope this novel helps to bring to life the age of creativity in Warsaw, its many theaters, cabarets, fashion shows, neons, and night clubs. I hope the novel helps memorialize the Jewish art and culture that, along with six million lives, was also decimated in the Holocaust. I hope the books sheds light on the dynamic role of Jewish women in Poland before the Holocaust. It is crucial that we understand what a vibrant and sophisticated place Warsaw was, because only then we can understand that “they” are like “us,” and what happened to their spirited, cosmopolitan world can so easily happen to ours.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
External deadlines! I have a lot of trouble finishing. I never feel like my work is complete and I’m always coming up with more ideas for edits and new directions; I tend to second guess myself. So, in order to move forward with any draft—or with any sentence!—I need to set a strict and imminent deadline, even if it’s totally made up. Of course, it’s even better if I commit to sending the draft to someone who will read it on that date.
