The Stephen Spender Trust was established in 1997 to promote poetry and translation. In this post Anna Blasiak, poet, translator and literature co-ordinator of the European Literature Network, who wor…
#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews HAVING NEVER MET by Inga Pizāne
This is the fifth volume in the Periscope series of translated poetry by the New York-based publisher A Midsummer Night’s Press, following One is None by Kätlin Kaldmaa, Anything Could …
#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews GAMES WITH GRETA & OTHER STORIES by Suzana Tratnik
A dense, tense and intense collection of thirteen short stories dealing with heavy issues, from violence, bullying, abuse and cruelty to social exclusion and homophobia, Games with Greta &am…
The Queer Riveter: Outside and Inside – A Conversation Between Two Polish Poets by Maria Jastrzębska and Anna Blasiak
Maria Jastrzębska was born in Poland but arrived in the UK in the 1950s at the age of four. Anna Blasiak arrived in the UK from Poland in 2003, age twenty-nine. Both women are poets, both are queer. I…
Havana
Published in / Opublikowane w: Ink Sweat and Tears Date of publication / Data publikacji: July, 2019 HAVANA Sorrow crumbles down everywhere. Gaping holes on Malecon filled with stones. Yes, Hemingway …
*** (Łuk wycięcia zaplecka / Headbord carved), Zbiory / Harvest, Emigracja / Emigration
Published in / Opublikowane w: The Queer Riveter Date of publication / Data publikacji: June, 2019 ZBIORY Miąższ truskawek nagrzanych słońcem był jak krew. Zlizywałam łapczywie. Zaraz przyjdą wiśnie. …
Garp, Sen, Wakacje. Nieskończoność, *** (Tansy ciągle na mnie warczy), Portret, *** (Łuk wycięcia zaplecka)
Published in / Opublikowane w: Helikopter Date of publication / Data publikacji: 7-9, 2019 GARP Tak się zapamiętałam w tej ciszy pielęgnacji – ja smutna siostra bez miłosierdzia dla wiosny, co mimocho…
Life on Mars, *** (My one with the skin of burnt caramel), Anxiety
Published in / Opublikowane w: The Blue Nib (38) Date of publication / Data publikacji: June, 2019 ANXIETY I am a hammock hung in a small gardenbetween two wooden poleserected at opposite ends. I blus…
#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews HYDRA’S HEADS by Nora Gomringer
Reading this book is like walking through an amusement park. Actually no, that would be too artificial, too unreal, while the book is so very real; there is something authentic and sincere about it, s…
#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews WHATEVER THE NAME by Pierre Lepori
There is something delicate and extremely fragile about Pierre Lepori’s poetry and about the character(s) he creates. The voice he writes in is hushed – you really need to be free of any distractions …
Holidays at Grandma’s
Published in / Opublikowane w: Modern Poetry in Translation Date of publication / Data publikacji: Spring 2019 Holidays at Grandma’s A tall willow tree rocked in the wind. You could touch its ca…
*** (Drzewa też), Łańcut. Kanibalizm, *** (Rozwijam to niebo), *** (Tansy ciągle na mnie warczy), Emigracja, *** (Łuskam ziarna)
Published in / Opublikowane w: wydawnictwoj Date of publication / Data publikacji: 04/2019 *** Drzewa też załamały dłonienad tą wiosnąz przestrachu,zadziwienia. Obarczone znowu liśćmi,rzędy wyrzutówzz…
#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews THE GALLOPING HOUR: FRENCH POEMS by Alejandra Pizarnik
This is a very special collection, consisting of Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik’s poems and prose poems written in French during her stay in Paris in the years 1960–1964 and later, back in Buenos A…
#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews CARAVAN LULLABIES by Ilzė Butkutė
I keep staring at the titles of Ilzė Butkutė’s two poetry collections – Caravan Lullabies and Carnival Moon – and I’m evermore sure that the alliteration cannot be accidental. The words mirror each ot…
Life on Mars
Published in / Opublikowane w: European Literature Network Date of publication / Data publikacji: August/Sierpień, 2018 Life on Mars is Anna Blasiak’s response to I Can’t Remember My Future Nam…
#RivetingReviews: SEVEN STONES by Vénus Khoury-Ghata
Often, without much thought (and quite insensitively), we consider other cultures to be intrinsically different from our own; we imagine our communities as divided from each other by huge crevices tha…
#RivetingReviews: THE GREEN CROW by Kristīne Ulberga
Reading this book is like plunging head-first into deep water. You don’t know what awaits – either in the depths, or even right under the surface. You quickly learn, however, that you should expect an…
Roll of the Dice
Published in / Opublikowane w: Exiled Ink E-Magazine Date of publication / Data publikacji: Issue 1, 2018 ROLL OF THE DICE 2004 It was with perfect clarity that she remembered the first …
Hummingbirds Have Black Hearts
Published in / Opublikowane w: On Life’s Path. Contemporary Writers of Poland, edited by Danuta Błaszak and Anna Maria Mickiewicz Date of publication / Data publikacji: 2017 (Dreammee Little Cit…
*** (A Friendly Fishmonger in the Harbour)
Published in / Opublikowane w: Exiled Ink E-Magazine Date of publication / Data publikacji: Issue 1, 2018 *** A friendly fishmonger in the harbour suddenly spews TV-hatred as acri…
Konkurs na Książkę Artystyczną Świdnica 2018
Kawiarnia przy St James’s Wrena w porze lunchu, nasza (moja i Lisy Kalloo) książka z wierszami i fotografiami znalazła się w finałowej dziesiątce Konkursu na Książkę Artystyczną Świdnica 2018. C…
Exiled Lit Cafe: This ‘Other’ English. Parallel languages of Britain
Monday 14th May 2018 at 7.30 pm, Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3BL Presenting writers and languages that are/were spoken within various British communities, some very much alive suc…
#RivetingReviews: THE GREAT PLAN B by Justyna Bargielska
Justyna Bargielska has published eight poetry collections in her native Poland, as well as two fiction books and two children’s books. She has won some of the most prestigious literary prizes in Polan…
Translating Rafał Gawin for Talking Transformations
Motivated by Brexit, Talking Transformations first project focuses on the UK and the countries most important to EU migration into and from the UK: respectively Romania & Poland and France & S…
Mirka Szychowiak’s mircrofiction in ASYMPTOTE
Mirka Szychowiak‘s microfiction I’m Scared of Those Dots has just been published in Asymptote’s Translation Tuesday! You can find it here. If you read Polish, you can find he origina…
Wakacje u babci; Pływanie podczas burzy; Kawiarnia przy St James Wrena w porze lunchu; Zbiory; Rakarz
Published in / Opublikowane w: Obszary Przepisane Date of publication / Data publikacji: 10/2017 Wakacje u babci Wysoka wierzba tańczyła z wdziękiem na wietrze. Jej witek można było dotknąć z huśtawki…
(Nie) moje wielkie, greckie wesele; Pływanie podczas burzy; Great Western
Published in / Opublikowane w: Inter Date of publication / Data publikacji: 10/2017 Pływanie podczas burzy Jechaliśmy na rozklekotanym motorze, bez prawa jazdy, przez pola nad kanał pod lasem. …
Irit Amiel’s LIFE. A TEMPORARY TITLE coming out in September
Irit Amiel’s autobiography in my translation is published by Vallentine Mitchell on 14 September 2017. You can pre-order the book directly from the publisher. More information here.…
Radosław Wiśniewski’s poetry in York Literary Review
I have translated a handful of poems by Radosław Wiśniewski and they have been published in the wonderful York Literary Review. What do you think?…
Review of Natalia Fiedorczuk’s “Jak pokochać centra handlowe” in Visegrad Insight
Visegrad Insight (issue 1[10] 2017) has published my review of Natalia Fiedorczuk’s Jak pokochać centra handlowe (“How to Fall in Love with Shopping Malls”). Thank you to Julia Sherw…
‘Hummingbirds Have Black Hearts’ in “On Life’s Path. Contemporary Writers of Poland” edited by Danuta Blaszak and Anna Maria Mickiewicz
My first short story or rather flash fiction in English has just appeared in the collection put together by Danuta Blaszak and Anna Maria Mickiewicz. The book is called On Life’s Path and is par…
Nominacja do Dużego Formatu!
Cóż tu więcej mówić? Znalazłam się wśród piątki szczęśliwców nominowanych w V Ogólnopolskim Konkursie na Tomik Poetycki Dużego Formatu w kategorii “Przed debiutem”. Po prostu radość i już.…
Great Western
Published in / Opublikowane w: Babiniec Literacki Date of publication / Data publikacji: 2/2017 Czasami, gdy w nocy obudzi mnie łoskot pociągu za oknem zaczynam się nagle zapuszczać w to miasto. Kie…
#RivetingReviews: NIEWAŻKOŚĆ by Julia Fiedorczuk
Julia Fiedorczuk, ELNet’s recent guest at one of our Euro Stars events, is known principally as a poet and a critic who popularised the idea of ecopoetry. She has published five collections of poems i…
Mirka Szychowiak’s poetry in B O D Y Literature
The wonderful B O D Y Literature has just published a set of Mirka Szychowiak‘s poems translated by yours truly. So the poems now join two short stories by Mirka published by B O D Y earlier (th…
British Council First Monday Blog: Polish Literature Across Borders
Poland is Market Focus at The London Book Fair 2017. On this occasion British Council has commissioned a series of blogs and other texts focusing on Polish literature. Today was my turn. I decided to …
Sheffield, here we come!
Between Wor(l)ds. An evening of poetry with Maria Jastrzębska and Anna Blasiak 16 February, 7pm, Carpenter Room, Central Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 1XZ Behind a curtain of leaves, behind the…
3 ulubione wiersze na ArtPubKultura
Małgorzata Południak zaprosiła mnie do podzielenia się swoimi trzema ulubionymi. Co też uczyniłam i teraz można sobie poczytać tutaj.…
A taster of Kaja Malanowska’s crime novel Fog on Drunken Boat
Drunken Boat has just published a special folio devoted to crime/noir fiction written by women. The guest editor of the folio is the wonderful Rachel Hildebrandt, translator and founder of Weyward Sis…
Polski NIEDŹWIEDŹ POLARNY Jenni Desmond już w przyszłym tygodniu!
W przyszłym tygodniu wychodzi po polsku kolejna po “Płetwalu błękitnym” książka Jenni Desmond o gatunkach zagrożonych. Tym razem jest to opowieść o “Niedźwiedziu polarnym” R…
Maria Jastrzębska Cedry z Walpole Park Poland Small Tour 2016
Od 18 listopada do 8 grudnia 2016 roku Maria Jastrzębska ponownie gości w Polsce z wierszami z tomu Cedry z Walpole Park (w tłumaczeniach Anny Błasiak, Pawła Gawrońskiego i Wioletty Grzegorzewskiej). …
10 Books by Polish Women Writers We’d Like to See Translated
Polish books in translation? It takes some effort to find them in bookshops and even more effort to read about them in the review sections of newspapers and magazines, or to find them in public librar…
Często się gubię między językami
6 odcinek cyklu wywiadów Wioletty Grzegorzewskiej zatytułowanego “Wyjechały – rozmowa z Anną Błasiak. „Wyjechały” to nawiązujący swym tytułem i zawartością do Wyjechali, zbioru czterech „wygnańc…
Stories of Each Other: Do We Care?
It was a day before the EU referendum when Free Word Centre held an evening called Stories of Each Other: Do We Care? In the charged pre-referendum atmosphere the wonderful people of FWC decided to in…
#RivetingReviews: THE ANGELS DIE by Yasmina Khadra
We meet the protagonist and narrator of Yasmina Khadra’s The Angels Die just before his execution. Turambo is an Algerian Arab living under French colonial rule in the 1920s. He lived in stark poverty…
#RivetingReviews: LULLABY FOR A HANGED MAN by Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki
The Polish writer Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki spent several years in Iceland before moving to his current home of Austria. His Lullaby for a Hanged Man is partly his own story and partly that of two m…
*** (na gołym stole), *** (jedna połówka)
Published in / Opublikowane w: Nowy BregArt Date of publication / Data publikacji: 7/2016 *** Na gołym stole butelka sardyńskiego wina na prezent, papieros w popielniczce, niedopita kawa. Na gołym sto…