Chez Raginiak  Chez Raginiak is an award-winning author who escaped communist Poland in 1985 at age 25 by securing a temporary exit visa to Italy during the "Polish Pope" travel thaw of the mid 1980s. He crossed the Alps from Italy to Austria where he spent the next 6 months in Austrian refugee camp before relocating to the United States. In many ways his experience, once he reached the US, embodies the near-mythological story of the hardworking individual rewarded by success that draws many to the American shores. His first book, "My Escape To Freedom", was nominated for a Midwest Book Award in 2008. It is also a little known fact that his girlfriend at the time purchased a majority of the copies of this bizarre poem book. His second book, "Learn English Without Teachers", is being translated to Spanish, Polish, Arabic, Hmong, Somali, and Burmese. His third book, "Tradition! What's your polka?" was endorsed by Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul.