Anna Blasiak

This is the story of Lili Pohlmann's incredible childhood and survival. During the Second World War she was helped by many people, sometimes by simply 'looking the other way'; but of especial significance were two remarkable non-Jews: a German woman working for the Nazi occupying forces in Lemberg, and a Greek Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop. After the war Lili came to London in the first of three transports of Jewish children from Poland. She arrived in the British capital on her sixteenth birthday. She still lives in London. The book consists of interviews with Lili, revealing her own voice, which is vivid, colourful and engaging. The conversations focus on Lili's childhood, wartime experiences, her arrival in London and years shortly after the war. They are accompanied by historical commentaries, as well as more personal pieces from the author, Anna Blasiak, framing and contrasting Lili's story and experiences with the story of somebody from a different generation, growing up years after the war in Poland, a place where the vanished Jews left a painful, gaping hole. Introduction by Philippe Sands Historical Context by Clare Mulley Illustrated with photographs throughout

The story of Lili Pohlmann's childhood and survival. During the Second World War she was helped by many people, including a German woman working for the Nazi occupying forces in Lemberg, and a Greek Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop. After the war Lili came to London in the first transport of Jewish children from Poland.

English-Polish volume of 27 poems by Anna Blasiak with 27 photographs by Lisa Kalloo It isn't exaggeration to say Deliverance is pioneering; it is a book of design, of illustration, a collaboration built upon a dynamic exchange across mediums; a collection of photopoetry, of image and poem, each elevating the other; all speaking with immediacy to what can be gleaned from personal experience. - SJ Fowler, poet, writer, organiser of European Poetry Festival in the UK Anna Blasiak's poetry book has kicked me where it hurts. These are moving poems about discrimination on many levels, but also about love and finding oneself. Deliverance is a liberation, an unmasking, beautifully complemented by Lisa Kalloo's photographic collages. - Wioletta Greg, poet, novelist, longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize (2017) and shortlisted to the Griffin Poetry Prize (2015) A series of poems about growing up queer in Poland in the 1980s. Deliverance has a narrative angle and explores themes of gender identity, LGBTQ rights, coming out, homophobia, women's rights etc, at the same time being mainly based on the author's family/societal history/background. The book has been written bilingually, in Polish and in English. The idea is that a reader can read each poem in either of the languages or in both of them simultaneously. The author has been exploring different techniques to achieve this result: mirroring, intertwining, playing on sounds in both languages. This is her attempt of showing the reality of somebody living between the languages, sometimes stretched between them - of somebody who, originally from Poland, has lived in the UK for over 20 years and who, as a translator, works in both of those languages on everyday basis.

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 JASTRZEBSKA, DANUSIA STOK and ELZBIETA WOJCIK-LEESE, took a set of 12 or 13 poems each and translated them into English. All people involved were women: the poet, the photographer, the four translators and the two editors. Together they arrived at 51 Polish poems, 51 English poems and 51 photographs making this collection. They raise themes such as cultural identity and migration, queerness, racism, isolation and family memories.