“Psalm to Saint Sabina” by Radosław Wiśniewski is the first publication released by a Ramsgate-based indie publisher, Sideways Press, set up in 2025 by poet and translator, Anna Blasiak, and photographer and artist, Lisa Kalloo.
Sideways Press’s ambition is to introduce English-language readers to translated writing – especially poetry. The pair say there are so many literary voices in other languages which don’t easily find their way into English. Sideways Press aspires to change that.
The first Sideways Press book is a long poem in 88 stanzas called “Psalm to Saint Sabina” which came out in Poland in several editions. It tells a story of Sabina Szopf, the protagonist’s (and the poet’s) great-grandmother and her turbulent life.
Sabina was born in Tsarist Russia in 1900, lived under the Soviet and German occupations and ended up settling after World War Two in the town of Brzeg in Silesia in Poland, previously a German town of Brieg.
The book-length poem has been a personal and private process of sanctification of the protagonist’s great-grandmother, written in the language on one hand referencing Bible, psalms and litanies, and on the other hand simple and at times colloquial, tinged with Sabina’s Eastern Borderlands linguistic quirks.
“Psalm to Saint Sabina” by Radosław Wiśniewski was translated into English by Anna Blasiak. The poem is accompanied by photography by Lisa Kalloo.
Radosław Wiśniewski is a Polish poet, prose writer and literary critic, co-founder and president of the indie publisher KIT Stowarzyszenie Żywych Poetów. He won several literary prizes in Poland. This is his first book in English.
Anna Blasiak is a poet, translator, managing editor of the European Literature Network and Head of Literature at the Polish Cultural Institute in London. She published two bilingual poetry and photography books (with Lisa Kalloo) “Kawiarnia przy St James’s Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren’s St-James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime” and “Deliverance / Rozpętanie”.
She also published a book-length interview, “Lili. Lili Stern-Pohlmann in conversation with Anna Blasiak”.
Lisa Kalloo is an art photographer with some experience in other areas of photography (magazines, book covers, events and traditional photography). She prefers hybrid photography, exploring different angles, gestures, old lenses, new lenses, old cameras, new cameras, digital, analogue and mixed.
She exhibited her work in London, Oxford, Ramsgate, Broadstairs (including Turner Contemporary The Open and the Creative Isle Community), Margate and in Germany.
Couple Lisa and Anna moved from London to Ramsgate 13 years ago.
The book will be launched during an exhibition called “The Lives of Saint Sabina” at Ramsgate’s Hold Creative Spaces. The exhibition will run from April 17-19.
Friday, 17 April, from 6pm-9pm is the private view.
On Saturday, 18 April, open from noon-7pm
6pm: Poetry Explained (Book Launch) with Radosław Wiśniewski over Zoom
Sunday, 19 April, open noon-5pm
1pm-3pm: Photography Explained with Lisa Kalloo
Hold Gallery is at Penstone House Albert Street, Ramsgate
More at: sidewayspress.com
A very positive post. Congratulations Kathy Bailes on the correct Polish spellings and correct accents. Not an easy task.