What’s new – Anna Błasiak

Rozpętanie w Pałacu Potockich w Krakowie

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 20 October 2025No Comments

Spotkanie autorskie wokół dwujęzycznej książki Anny Błasiak. „Rozpętanie / Deliverance” (SPP Oddział w Łodzi, 2024). Spotkanie poprowadzi poetka i ilustratorka, Ka Klakla. Wysycona zagrożeniem, grimmowska atmosfera zdjęć Lisy Kalloo odpowiada atmosferze wierszy Anny Błasiak, snujących opresyjną historię dorastania lesbijki w Polsce w latach osiemdziesiątych XX wieku. I zdjęcia, i wiersze przeszły kilka etapów organicznej ewolucji, inspiracja między formami płynęła w obu kierunkach. …

Biała Lokomotywa 2025

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 27 August 2025No Comments

Spotkanie autorskie: Anna Błasiak i Łucja Dudzińska, prowadzenie Daria Danuta Lisiecka i Paweł Jasiński Łazieniec, 6 września 2025

Psalm to Saint Sabina by Radosław Wiśniewski, translated by Anna Blasiak won the inaugural Trafika Europe’s Andrew Singer Prize for Verse

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 15 April 202515 April 2025No Comments

The winners of inaugural Trafika Europe prizes were Tatjana Gromača’s “Black”, translated by Ena Selimovic (prose), and Radosław Wiśniewski’s “Psalm to Saint Sabina”, translated by Anna Błasiak (verse). Runners-up in prose were “The Sons Are First to Die” by Mate Matišić, trans. by Suzana Vuljevic, and “Copulation Therapy” by Giacomo Sartori, trans. by Michela Martini …

Krótka piłka #98: Anna Błasiak

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 6 December 20246 December 2024No Comments

Vlog literacki Miejskiej Biblioteki Publicznej im. Adama Asnyka w Kaliszu prowadzony przez Izabelę Fietkiewicz-Paszek. Najnowszy odcinek poświęcony jest Annie Błasiak (tekst), Lisie Kalloo (foto) i książce „Rozpętanie / Deliverance” (wyd. SPP Łódź, red. Rafał Gawin, Wioletta Grzegorzewska red. wersji anglojęzycznej Maria Jastrzębska Łódź 2024).

Kącik poezji queerowej: Anna Błasiak. Dom literatury w Łodzi, 25.11.2024

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 30 November 20247 December 2024No Comments

25 listopada odbyło się spotkanie autorskie wokół książki “Rozpętanie / Deliverance”. Spotkanie w Domu literatury w Łodzi poprowadził Rafał Gawin. Można je obejrzeć tutaj: https://fb.watch/wk2ecJ4VMW/

Bardzo żywe kobiety na festiwalu Syfon w Brzegu, 22.11.2024

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 28 November 20247 December 2024No Comments

Na brzeskim festiwalu spotkały się trzy bardzo żywe kobiety: Katarzyna Zwolska-Płusa, Agnieszka Mohylowska i Anna Błasiak. Spotkanie poprowadził Witek Sułek.

Spotkanie można oglądać tutaj: https://fb.watch/wk1irWLdZt

Spotkanie autorskie: Anna Błasiak, “Rozpętanie / Deliverance” w słupskim Cepelinie

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 21 November 20247 December 2024No Comments

14 listopada w słupskiej księgarni Cepelin odbyło się spotkanie autorskie wokół książki “Rozpętanie / Deliverance”, które poprowadził Daniel Odija. Cudny plakat do spotkania przygotowała zaś Małgorzata Południak. Obu bardzo dziękuję! Poniżej zaś kilka zdjęć ze spotkania autorstwa Małgorzaty Wątor.

Trafika Europe Radio: Poet Anna Blasiak and photographer Lisa Kalloo

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 18 October 20248 December 2024No Comments

Clayton McKee interviewed us for the Trafika Europe Radio, talking about our forthcoming book, “Deliverance/Rozpętanie”. You can listen to the interview here:

Poems from Deliverance in Trafika Europe

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 24 August 20248 October 2024No Comments

Trafika Europe editors have kindly published a handful of poems and photographs from Deliverance / Rozpętanie for their Gothic Revival issue. You can read them (and the entire magazine) here.

O Kawiarni: Agnieszka Kostuch, Głos emigrantki

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 23 February 20218 September 2024No Comments

Kawiarnia przy St James’s Wrena w porze lunchu (K.I.T. Stowarzyszenie Żywych Poetów, Brzeg 2020; Holland House Books, Newbury, ss. 136) jest owocem wspólnego projektu fotografki Lisy Kalloo, tłumaczki i poetki – Anny Błasiak – oraz czterech innych tłumaczek: Marty Dziurosz, Marii Jastrzębskiej, Danuty Stok, Elżbiety Wójcik-Leese. Książka jest wydaniem dwujęzycznym: polsko-angielskim. Biorąc pod uwagę ilość i artyzm zamieszczonych …

O Kawiarni: Przeczytane. Napisane

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 1 February 20218 September 2024No Comments

„Kawiarnia przy St James’s Wrena w porze lunchu” to dwujęzyczny (polsko-angielski) album poetycki. Wierszom Anny Błasiak towarzyszą fotografie Lisy Kalloo. I w zasadzie trudno orzec czy jednak to tom poezji ze zdjęciami, czy raczej album fotograficzny z tekstem. Wydaje się, że oba te środki komunikacji artystek ze światem istnieją tu na równych prawach, wzajemnie się …

Café… reviewed by Anna Danielewicz in Spamzine

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 6 October 20208 September 2024No Comments

Attending to the poetics of place, identity, memory, translation and betweenness, Anna Danielewicz reviews Anna Błasiak’s Café by Wren’s St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime (Holland House Books, 2020), a book which also includes photographs from Lisa Kalloo and translations from Marta Dziurosz, Maria Jastrzebska, Danusia Stok and Elzbieta Wojcik-Leese. The locus of Anna Błasiak’s Café by Wren’s …

Emma Lee reviewed “Café…” for The Blue Nib

by Anna BlasiakKawiarnia przy St James's Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren's St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime, What's new 29 September 202026 September 2020No Comments

Most of the photographs are abstracts, focused on textures of everyday objects such as wood and metal, the mechanics of a bike, street or beach scenes, sometimes two photographs overlaid. Many of these poems have a similar discipline to the photographs: they present an idea and ask a viewer to respond. Full review can be …

O literaturze otwarcie przyjrzało się bliżej “Kawiarni…”

by Anna BlasiakKawiarnia przy St James's Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren's St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime, What's new 28 September 202026 September 2020No Comments

Biorąc pod uwagę ilość i artyzm zamieszczonych w niej fotografii trudno nazwać ją „tylko” tomem poezji, może lepiej książką poetycko-fotograficzną. Co ważne, zarówno wiersze jak i fotografie mogłyby stanowić dwa niezależne projekty, nie tracąc przy tym na sile swojego oddziaływania. Pełną recenzję można przeczytać tutaj.

Recenzje Agi wzięły na tapetę “Kawiarnię…”

by Anna BlasiakKawiarnia przy St James's Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren's St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime, What's new 27 September 202026 September 2020No Comments

Polsko-angielski tomik Anny Błasiak zaskakuje nie tylko formą, idealnie dopasowanymi do wierszy fotografiami Lisy Kalloo, ale nade wszystkim trafnością spostrzeżeń, przestrzeniami między wierszami wypełnionymi intensywnymi emocjami. Podmiotów lirycznych jest tutaj wiele. Autorka nie tylko personifikuje naturę, ale też wplata swój pierwiastek jako jednostkę silną, odczuwającą, spełniającą rolę doskonałej puenty zatrzymującej każdą chwilę codzienności. Pełną recenzję można przeczytać tutaj.

David Caddy reviewed “Café…” in Tears in the Fence

by Anna BlasiakKawiarnia przy St James's Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren's St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime, What's new 26 September 20208 September 2024No Comments

This extraordinary and substantial 136 page bilingual publication in English and Polish is a collaborative work between Polish poet, Anna Blasiak, her accomplished translators, Marta Dzivrosz, Maria Jastrzębska, Danusia Stok and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese, and photographer, Lisa Kalloo. Each translator took a set of 12 or 13 poems to translate into English. The results are uniformly …

Snow Q: Królowa Śniegu na miarę naszych czasów

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 6 April 2020No Comments

Snow Q to projekt artystyczny stworzony przez grupę artystów z Brighton i okolic, którzy postawili sobie za zadanie opowiedzenie na nowo i umieszczenie we współczesnym kontekście Królowej śniegu Hansa Christiana Andersena. Zaczęło się od współpracy trójki artystów o polskich koneksjach: poetki Marii Jastrzębskiej, plastyczki Dagmary Rudkin oraz kompozytora Petera Copleya, do których dołączyli również artystka filmowa Wendy Pye, …

Café by Wren’s St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime / Kawiarnia przy St James Wrena w porze lunchu

by Anna BlasiakKawiarnia przy St James's Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren's St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime, What's new 6 April 20202 September 2024No Comments

by ANNA BLASIAK (poetry) and LISA KALLOO (photography) This book has collaboration and translation at its heart: between people, words and images, languages, cultures. The poems came first, in Polish. Then came the photographic response to them. Then four translators, MARTA DZIUROSZ, MARIA JASTRZĘBSKA, DANUSIA STOK and ELŻBIETA WÓJCIK-LEESE, took a set of 12 or 13 poems each …

Poems from CAFÉ featured in The High Window

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 6 April 2020No Comments

A set of poems from the book has been featured in The High Window magazine.

Poems from CAFÉ in Impspired Magazine

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 6 April 20206 April 2020No Comments

A set of poems from CAFÉ BY WREN’S ST JAMES-IN-THE-FIELDS, LUNCHTIME (out 16 April 2020 from Holland House Books) has appeared in the Impspired Magazine. This particular set has been translated by Marta Dziurosz.

Jewish Book Week 2020: Translation Matters to watch!

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 30 March 20206 April 2020No Comments

If you couldn’t be there at the JBW to hear Ros Schwartz, Peter Filkins, Boyd Tonkin and me talking translation, here is the video of the event in full:

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews TRACING THE UNSPOKEN by Milan Šelj

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 28 March 20206 April 2020No Comments

Even though Milan Šelj is a translator of poetry from English into Slovene, and has lived in the UK and spoken English on an everyday basis for some time, Tracing the Unspoken is his first book in English (he has published four poetry collections and a novel in Slovenia). What a daring debut it is. …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews PIXEL by Krisztina Tóth

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 28 February 20206 April 2020No Comments

This book offers a very intricate, highly precise collage of images, each capturing something about the times we live in. It shows various versions of the discontent and crises that have become the trademark of our era. Each chapter can be read as a short story – at least that was how I started my …

Kawiarnia przy St James’s Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren’s St James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime by Anna Błasiak and Lisa Kalloo out on 16 April

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 18 February 20206 April 2020No Comments

This book has collaboration and translation at its heart: between people, words and images, languages, cultures. The poems came first, in Polish. Then came the photographic response to them. Then four translators, MARTA DZIUROSZ, MARIA JASTRZĘBSKA, DANUSIA STOK and ELŻBIETA WÓJCIK-LEESE, took a set of 12 or 13 poems each and translated them into English. …

Jewish Book Week 2020: Translation Matters

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 18 February 2020No Comments

TRANSLATION MATTERS PETER FILKINS, ANNA BLASIAK, SYLVIE WEIL CHAIR: BOYD TONKIN 01/03/2020 12:30 PMKINGS PLACE, ST PANCRAS ROOM Ticket Price : £9.50 GET TICKETS Author Boyd Tonkin wrote that, ‘To write, and to read, is to forever cross thresholds’. Translation opens up new vistas, refreshes language and fosters globalism. In a world where English is the lingua …

Queer Alphabet Soup

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 18 February 2020No Comments

This is what I’m doing tomorrow! And here is what the QAS organisers say: Back for a second year! QAS is a series of readings, poetry and performance from literary queer novelists, poets, performance artists and writers. Featuring readings and performances from: Adam Mars-JonesAuthor of Kid Gloves, Cedilla and Pilcrow as well as many years …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews BLUEPRINT by Theresia Enzensberger

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 20 December 20196 April 2020No Comments

I delved eagerly into this book, excited to have the chance to learn more about the Bauhaus outside of my more usual art-historian context. The book tells the story of a Bauhaus student, Luise Schilling, who first does a stint in Weimar and then, after a three-year break, comes back to study at the Bauhaus …

*** (it wakes up from above)

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 12 December 2019No Comments

Published in / Opublikowane w: Home on the Move. Two poems go on a journey, edited by Manuela Perteghella and Ricarda Vidal, Parthian Books Date of publication / Data publikacji: 2019 *** it wakes up from abovewith a rat-tat-a-tat, with the trafficsevered deeply by lines and circlesit stares with sleepy eyes of parksfilled with boats …

*** (Siedziałyśmy po trzech stronach)

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 12 December 2019No Comments

Published in / Opublikowane w: Strefa wolna. Wiersze przeciwko nienawiści i homofobii Date of publication / Data publikacji: 2019 *** Siedziałyśmy po trzech stronach stołunad sprzeczną porzeczkąw galaretce.W kubkach pieniła się kawa,i w głowach.Przestrzeń płynęła w trzech kierunkachcoraz bardziej.Wygłuszony głos w wierszach.Inkantacja,głos – głos – odległość.Świat miał dzisiaj trzy strony,ale tylko dlatego.

Brexit, * (W nocy sowy) / * (Noaptea bufnitele), Grand Tour AD 2018

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 12 December 2019No Comments

Published in / Opublikowane w: Scadronul Sondoroirilor. Poezie Poloneza Protestatara Noua, Mamaliga d Varsovia / Szwadron szwargotań. Nowa polska poezja protestu, Mamałyga warszawska Date of publication / Data publikacji: 2019 BREXIT Kiosk w porcie,regularny przystanek. Ryby, krewetki, homary.W telewizyjnej kamerzenagle wypływa z niego gęsta lawa nienawiści.Ryby psują się szybciej.Zostaję weganką.Nikt już nie patrzy sobie w …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews TIDAL EVENTS. SELECTED POEMS by Mária Ferenčuhová

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 6 November 20196 April 2020No Comments

These are very intimate poems; reading them is like peeping into somebody’s private space or spying between the pages of a diary that was written only for the author herself. There is, therefore, a lot of fragility here; the poet is delicately exposing herself to us. One does feel like an intruder at times, even, …

How to translate from Polish (even when you don’t know the language): The Stephen Spender Prize Polish Spotlight in the classroom by Anna Blasiak

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 5 September 20195 August 2019No Comments

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 works with the Trust describes some of the fabulously creative multilingual poetry workshops she ran with children in the UK. The Stephen Spender Trust has been …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews HAVING NEVER MET by Inga Pizāne

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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 Happen by Jana Putrle Srdić, Dissection by Care Santos and Caravan Lullabies by Ilzė Butkutė (the last was reviewed in The Baltic Riveter last year). All of these books are pocket-size. And I mean it: …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews GAMES WITH GRETA & OTHER STORIES by Suzana Tratnik

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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 & Other Stories is a broken mirror, reflecting various aspects of life for queer women in Slovenian society, which, like most post-communist countries in Europe, seems still to be struggling …

The Queer Riveter: Outside and Inside – A Conversation Between Two Polish Poets by Maria Jastrzębska and Anna Blasiak

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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. In the following conversation (which they hold in English), they discuss the similarities and differences between their …

Havana

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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 drank his mojitos and daiquiris here. Yes, you can drink there too. Just watch out for rake-thin, sad dogs. Deserted Plaza de la Revolution …

*** (Łuk wycięcia zaplecka / Headbord carved), Zbiory / Harvest, Emigracja / Emigration

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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. HARVEST Sun-drenched the flesh of strawberries was like blood I licked greedily. Cherries next.

Garp, Sen, Wakacje. Nieskończoność, * (Tansy ciągle na mnie warczy), Portret, * (Łuk wycięcia zaplecka)

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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 mimochodem przyszła. Nie wierzę. Dotykam – i dalej nie wierzę. Naparstki nieczucia na palcach. Coraz głębiej grzęzną w aseptycznych piaskach Sahary białe pantofle od Jenny Fields – i bezkreśnie jakoś.

Life on Mars, *** (My one with the skin of burnt caramel), Anxiety

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 5 August 2019No Comments

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 blush all orange and grey,tightly hugging two metal hooks,rubbing them with black rope. I swing back and forthgently (or not),sometimes nauseatingly. …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews HYDRA’S HEADS by Nora Gomringer

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 18 April 201918 April 2019No Comments

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, something raw. Perhaps reading it is like being dropped into a wilderness. It will excite you in a joyous and a …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews WHATEVER THE NAME by Pierre Lepori

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 16 April 201916 April 2019No Comments

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 to tune into it, to adjust to the seemingly plain language and pace, to the language stripped of anything surplus. And …

Holidays at Grandma’s

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 16 April 201916 April 2019No Comments

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 catkins from the swing. Just needed to get it going hard enough. Further down there was a walnut tree. We built an entire …

* (Drzewa też), Łańcut. Kanibalizm, * (Rozwijam to niebo), * (Tansy ciągle na mnie warczy), Emigracja, * (Łuskam ziarna)

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 3 April 20198 April 2019No Comments

Published in / Opublikowane w: wydawnictwoj Date of publication / Data publikacji: 04/2019 *** Drzewa też załamały dłonienad tą wiosnąz przestrachu,zadziwienia. Obarczone znowu liśćmi,rzędy wyrzutówzzieleniały.Stoją oniemiałe. Lawiruję między nimiostrożnie,by nie skazić się kwitnieniem. Trzeba tak bardzo uważaćPrzecież. Resztę wierszy oraz twórczość innych poetów można znaleźć na stronie wydawnictwaj tutaj.

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews THE GALLOPING HOUR: FRENCH POEMS by Alejandra Pizarnik

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 18 September 2018No Comments

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 Aires, shortly before her suicide in 1972. Like her Spanish-language poems, the French ones (later also self-translated into Spanish) are full of …

#RivetingReviews: Anna Blasiak reviews CARAVAN LULLABIES by Ilzė Butkutė

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 18 September 2018No Comments

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 other even more closely in the original Lithuanian: ‘karavanų’ and ‘karnavalų’. In fact the English collection, entitled Caravan Lullabies, consists of two parts, each a selection of …

Life on Mars

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 18 September 2018No Comments

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 Name by Ilzė Butkutė, translated by Rimas Uzgiris, which made Anna think of the “American Horror Story. Freak Show”. The poem has been written during ‘Transreading the Baltics’ course ran by …

#‎RivetingReviews: SEVEN STONES by Vénus Khoury-Ghata

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 2 July 2018No Comments

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 that are difficult or simply impossible to bridge. And yet the bridging happens, sometimes even when we don’t try. We stare at the divide and …

#RivetingReviews: THE GREEN CROW by Kristīne Ulberga

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 8 May 20182 May 2018No Comments

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 anything and everything. There are moments when you swim smoothly through long passages, and these almost lull you. But then a …

Roll of the Dice

by Anna BlasiakProse, What's new 7 May 20182 May 2018No Comments

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 time when she actually thought she could stay here (though she never let herself or anybody else use the expression “forever”. …

*** (A Friendly Fishmonger in the Harbour)

by Anna BlasiakPoetry, What's new 4 May 20182 May 2018No Comments

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 acrid and thick as toilet bleach. His fish spoils faster. I go vegan. People are lighter in the streets, ready for flight. There …

Konkurs na Książkę Artystyczną Świdnica 2018

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 3 May 20182 May 2018No Comments

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. Coś więcej będzie wiadomo za jakiś czas, ale tymczasem uprasza się o trzymanie kciuków.

Exiled Lit Cafe: This ‘Other’ English. Parallel languages of Britain

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 2 May 2018No Comments

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 such as Welsh and Polish, some almost defunct such as Yiddish. Why do some writers choose not to learn or to write in the language of …

#RivetingReviews: THE GREAT PLAN B by Justyna Bargielska

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 1 March 20181 March 2018No Comments

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 Poland, has been translated and published in many languages (including in English in Modern Poetry in Translation) and has become a fixture on …

Translating Rafał Gawin for Talking Transformations

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 31 January 2018No Comments

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 & Spain. British poetry is sent through literary translation via France to Spain before returning home; in parallel, an original Polish poem travels through translation from Poland …

Mirka Szychowiak’s mircrofiction in ASYMPTOTE

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 17 January 201817 January 2018No Comments

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 original version here.

Irit Amiel’s LIFE. A TEMPORARY TITLE coming out in September

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 1 September 201725 September 2017No Comments

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

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 29 August 2017No Comments

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

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 8 August 2017No Comments

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 Sherwood and the Visegrad Insight team for this amazing opportunity.

‘Hummingbirds Have Black Hearts’ in “On Life’s Path. Contemporary Writers of Poland” edited by Danuta Blaszak and Anna Maria Mickiewicz

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 13 July 201729 August 2017No Comments

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 part of the series Contemporary Writers of Poland. You can get it from here. My story, “Hummingbirds Have Black Hearts” is …

Nominacja do Dużego Formatu!

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 14 June 201714 June 2017No Comments

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.

#RivetingReviews: NIEWAŻKOŚĆ by Julia Fiedorczuk

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 24 March 201713 March 2020Comments are Disabled

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 in her native Poland (Oxygen, translated into English by Bill Johnston, is about to be published in the US by Zephyr …

Mirka Szychowiak’s poetry in B O D Y Literature

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 10 March 2017No Comments

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 (thank you, B O D Y editors!). This great writer from Poland deserves to be read more widely, …

British Council First Monday Blog: Polish Literature Across Borders

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 6 March 20176 March 2017No Comments

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 discuss some of the Polish writers living in the British Isles, both those writing in Polish and in English. Here it …

Sheffield, here we come!

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 7 February 20177 February 2017No Comments

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 trees and the shadows, heart-breaking stories are told with reticence and hesitation. Something to do with nationality, memory, language and gender, patiently revealed in the …

Read more “Sheffield, here we come!”

3 ulubione wiersze na ArtPubKultura

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 23 January 2017No Comments

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

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 20 January 201720 January 2017No Comments

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 Sisters Publishing, which focuses on bringing contemporary works of crime and noir fiction by women authors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to English readers. One …

Polski NIEDŹWIEDŹ POLARNY Jenni Desmond już w przyszłym tygodniu!

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 1 December 20167 February 2017No Comments

W przyszłym tygodniu wychodzi po polsku kolejna po “Płetwalu błękitnym” książka Jenni Desmond o gatunkach zagrożonych. Tym razem jest to opowieść o “Niedźwiedziu polarnym” – w moim tłumaczeniu, wydana pięknie przez Wydawnictwo Łajka. Jakby ktoś szukał prezentu pod choinkę dla zaprzyjaźnionego malucha, to bardzo się nada…

Maria Jastrzębska Cedry z Walpole Park Poland Small Tour 2016

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 21 November 201621 November 2016No Comments

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). Na trasie: Wrocław, Brzeg, Olkusz, Kraków. A oto szczegóły: 21 listopada – godzina 18:00, Księgarnia “Tajne Komplety” Wrocław, prowadzenie; Radosław Wiśniewski 22 listopada – …

10 Books by Polish Women Writers We’d Like to See Translated

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 28 October 201621 November 2016No Comments

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 libraries. And when it comes to books written by Polish women? Well, need I say more? We’ve heard it all …

Często się gubię między językami

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 5 September 2016No Comments

6 odcinek cyklu wywiadów Wioletty Grzegorzewskiej zatytułowanego “Wyjechały – rozmowa z Anną Błasiak. „Wyjechały” to nawiązujący swym tytułem i zawartością do Wyjechali, zbioru czterech „wygnańczych” opowieści W. G. Sebalda, cykl rozmów Wioletty Grzegorzewskiej z polskimi artystkami: pisarkami, tłumaczkami, poetkami, które wyjechały po wejściu Polski do Unii Europejskiej i do tej pory mieszkają za granicą. Cały …

Stories of Each Other: Do We Care?

by Anna BlasiakWhat's new 20 August 201621 August 2016No Comments

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 invite guests from newly arrived communities and ask them to describe their experience of migration. There were writers from Iraq to Sri Lanka, Ethopia …

#‎RivetingReviews: THE ANGELS DIE by Yasmina Khadra

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 17 August 20166 October 2016No Comments

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 as a child but later also experiences fame and fortune. However, it is the poverty and oppression that leave the strongest …

#‎RivetingReviews: LULLABY FOR A HANGED MAN by Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki

by Anna BlasiakArticles / Artykuły, What's new 2 August 20166 October 2016No Comments

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 men he met in Iceland: the eccentric Croat Boro and Szymon Kuran, the Polish violinist, jazz musician and composer. They are …

#‎RivetingReviews‬: DYGOT by Jakub Małecki

by S7Articles / Artykuły, What's new 1 July 20166 October 2016No Comments

Dygot, by Jakub Małecki, Published in Polish by Sine Qua Non, October 2015, Review by Anna Blasiak Dygot (Tremor) is a miniature saga (just over 300 pages long) about two families from rural Poland. The Łabendowiczs and the Geldas are portrayed across three generations, starting just before the break of the Second World War and ending in contemporary times. Both families are …

#RivetingReviews: QUIET FLOWS THE UNA by Faruk Šehić

by S7Articles / Artykuły, What's new 1 July 201631 August 2016No Comments

Quiet Flows the Una, by Faruk Šehić, Translated by Will Firth, Published by Istros Books (2016), Reviewed by Anna Blasiak The title of Faruk Šehić’s novel is a reference to the Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Sholokhov’s And Quiet Flows the Don. Like the Sholokhov, Šehić’s book is about fratricide. However, it is completely different in mood, tone and language; this is not an epic story about …