In Bloom

stories by Katarzyna Szaulińska

translated from the Polish

by Mark Tardi

29 pages, paper, staple-bound

Toad Press, 2026. $6.00

poems by Katarzyna Szaulińska

English translations Mark Tardi

Cover art by Małgorzata Myk

You can purchase a copy of In Bloom at Asterism.

Katarzyna Szaulińska's debut collection of short stories Czarna ręka, zsiadłe mleko [Blackened hand, curdled milk] was nominated for the Nike Award, Poland's most prestigious literary award. Polish critic Justyna Sobolewska observed that Szaulińska “proves that all boundaries, especially in the psychological sphere, are very fluid––including those between doctor and patient.” As a writer, Szaulińska is unafraid of flouting expectations and unwilling to relegate her creativity to lanes of narrative politeness. Rather, she's unencumbered when it comes to where her imagination will take her. She can draw from her professional experiences while simultaneously turning those experiences on their head, charged with unpredictability. IN BLOOM presents four of Szaulińska's stories, "Online," "Bedfellows," "In Bloom," and "Degesch Blues" in English translation. 

Katarzyna Szaulińska was born in Kołobrzeg in 1987. She is the author of Kryptodom (Biuro Literackie, 2023), which has been nominated for the Wisława Szymborska Prize, Czarna ręka, zsiadłe mleko (Filtry, 2022), which has been nominated for the Nike Award, Poland’s most prestigious literary prize, and Druga Osoba (2020), a recipient of Biuro Literackie’s first-book award. She has published work in respected literary journals in Poland, such as Mały Format, Wizje, Helikopter, Kontent, Wakat, Fabularie, and Kultura Liberalna. In 2024, she was awarded the Różewicz Drama Prize for her play Kret/Mara. In English translation, her work has appeared in Guernica, Cagibi, Another Chicago Magazine, The Scores, in the book Viscera: Eight Voices from Poland (Litmus, 2024) and chapbook, Faith in Strangers (Toad Press/Veliz Books, 2021), and elsewhere. She is the author of a comic book about depression entitled Czarne Fale/Murky Waves and the one-woman show Córcia [Baby girl], which was staged at the WARSaw Theatre. She lives in Warsaw, where she works as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.

Mark Tardi is a writer and translator whose awards include a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Grant and a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Translation fellowship. His translations include Viscera: Eight Voices from Poland (Litmus Press, 2024), Unsovereign by Kacper Bartczak (above/ground press, 2024), The Squatters’ Gift by Robert Rybicki (Dalkey Archive, 2021) and Faith in Strangers by Katarzyna Szaulińska. Recent writing and translations have appeared in Conjunctions, Poetry, MAYDAY, Ilanot Review, Denver Quarterly, Interim, Cagibi, Tupelo Quarterly, Full Stop, and in the anthology, The Experiment Will Not Be Bound (Unbound Edition Press, 2023). His newest book, Recapitulation in the Wrong Key, is out from BlazeVOX Books. He is on faculty at the University of Łódź.

 

Loopholes

poems by Tamara Štajner

translated from the German

by Rebecca Weingart

21 pages, paper, staple-bound

Toad Press, 2026. $6.00

poems by Tamara Štajner

English translations Rebecca Weingart

Cover image based on the 19th century print “Blue and pink paste paper with circle and wavy line pattern,” Anonymous, Object 40.21.112 at The MET. In the public domain; courtesy of Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940. 

You can purchase a copy of Loopholes at Asterism.

A selection of poems by award-winning musician, author, and performance artist Tamara Štajner. LOOPHOLES draws from Tamara Štajner's poetry collection Schlupflöcher (Wunderhorn, 2022), which explores themes of memory, place, and motherhood. These resonant and sonic poems connect English readers to an important new voice in German literature. Štajner's portrayal of pregnancy in the "loopholes" series of poems--included in its entirety here--may feel especially timely for American audiences living in a post-Roe v. Wade society.

The literary critic Beate Tröger praised the courage and genius of Štajner’s poetry: “What does it mean to (not) be a mother? This question, which in the cycle attempts to poetically capture perceptions of the body, is translated here in a nuanced and emotional way into a language that transforms a subjective experience into a universal one, connecting the longing for connection and the desire for autonomy, tough and tender at the same time.”

Tamara Štajner, born in Novo mesto (Slovenia), is a musician and author, based in Vienna, Austria. She received her Masters in Viola at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She is a sought-after soloist and plays in multiple established ensembles. Tamara’s performance art has been presented at the Viennese Museums Quartier, the Secession, the Kunstraum Niederösterreich, OstLicht, and Vienna Art Week. She has led workshops at institutions including Williams College, the Private University for Music and Art in Vienna, and the University for Music and Performing Arts Graz. She received multiple fellowships from the Federal Ministry of Art and Culture, including the annual literature scholarship (2026). In 2020, she was admitted to the "Junge Akademie" of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz. Her first book of poetry, Schlupflöcher, was published in 2022 by Wunderhorn, followed by her narrative debut, Raupenfell, in 2023. In 2024, she won the Meran Poetry Prize and read at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, where she was awarded the Kelag Prize for her text Luft nach unten. In spring 2026, her Slovenian debut novel Goseničji kožuh was published by Beletrina. Her novel Luft nach unten is forthcoming from Paul Zsolnay Verlag in autumn 2026.


Rebecca Weingart is a translator from the Midwest. Her translations have appeared in Pakn Treger, Hopkins Review, Harvard Review, and Grotto Journal and have received support from the Yiddish Book Center, the American Literary Translators Association, and the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is currently a PhD student in Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis.

 

2026 titles available for preorder

 

We are so excited about our 2026 chapbook selections! We're putting the final touches on our two exciting titles: 

 

 

LOOPHOLES, poems by Tamara Štajner, translated from the German by Rebecca Weingart. (21 pages, paper, staple-bound. Toad Press, 2026. $6.00)

 

 

 

 

& IN BLOOM, stories by Katarzyna Szaulińska, translated from the Polish by Mark Tardi. Cover art by Małgorzata Myk. (29 pages, paper, staple-bound. Toad Press, 2026. $6.00)

 

 

 

 

LOOPHOLES will be available mid-August, and IN BLOOM will arrive mid-September, but you can pre-order today on Asterism! Learn more and reserve your copy at asterismbooks.com/publisher/toad-press

 

 

2026 Chapbook Series

 

We are excited to share our 2026 chapbook selections! This year we'll publish two chapbooks: 

•  Loopholes, poems by Tamara Štajner, translated from the German by Rebecca Weingart
  
• In Bloom, stories by Katarzyna Szaulińska, translated from the Polish by Mark Tardi

Thanks again to all who submitted during our open reading period this year! It was exciting to see what you've been working on, and we loved reading your translations! 

Look for Loopholes and In Bloom later this year!

Now reading for 2026!

 

Submissions for the 2026 Toad Press International chapbook series are now open, and we can't wait to read your translations!  

 

Review our Submission Information and FAQs for more details. When you're ready, send us your chapbook manuscript via Submittable. We are open for submissions through December 31, 2025, and we aim to make our choices for the 2026 series (publication in summer/fall 2026) by early February. 

 

We invite you to submit for free, choose to support our small press by paying a $6 reading fee, or pay the reading fee & purchase a chapbook from our impressive catalog when you submit.

 

When you're ready, head to Submittable and send us your work.

 

 

Leaving the Beach

poems by Ariane Dreyfus

translated 

by Elaine Terranova

39 pages, paper, staple-bound

Toad Press, 2025. $6.00

poems by Araine Dreyfus

translations by Elaine Terranova

cover drawing by Ariene Dreyfus, "Partir encore plus loin?"

You can purchase a copy of Leaving the Beach at Asterism, on Etsy, or from submittable.

Ariane Dreyfus is a French poet, critic, and retired professor who continues to teach poetry writing workshops. She was born in 1958. Her work has appeared in most major literary periodicals and prominent anthologies in France as well as included in New European Poets, ed. Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer (Graywolf, 2008). She has published more than fifteen works, including Le dernier livre des enfants (Flammarion, 2016), inspired in part by A High Wind in Jamaica, a novel by Richard Hughes, and its film adaptation by Alexander Mackendrick; Nous nous attendons and Iris, c’est votre bleu (Poesie/Gallimard, 2023); and Le double été (Castor Astral, 2024). She has always drawn inspiration from other arts, particularly the circus, dance, and cinema. Her poetry is often narrative.

Elaine Terranova has published eight collections of poetry, most recently Rinse (Grid Books, 2023), two chapbooks, and The Diamond Cutter’s Daughter: a Poet’s Memoir. Her translation of Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis is part of the Penn Greek Drama Series. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The New Yorker, APR, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Hotel Amerika. She has received the Academy of American Poets First Book Award (formerly the Walt Whitman Award); fellowships from Pew, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts; the 2024 Maurice English Poetry Award; and a Pushcart Prize.