Codex of the Insane

Codex of the Insane (Body and Related Matters)

Bronka Nowicka

translated from the Polish

by Katarzyna Szuster-Tardi

 

 23 pages, paper

Toad Press, 2021. $5.00 

cover image by Małgorzata ET BER Warlikowska

You can purchase a copy of Codex of the Insane here. 

BRONKA (BRONISŁAWA) NOWICKA is a Polish theatre and TV director, screenwriter, poet, and interdisciplinary artist. She is a graduate of the National Film School in Łódź, Poland, and the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts. Her literary debut, Nakarmić kamień (To Feed the Stone) was awarded the 2016 Nike Literary Award and the Złoty Środek Poezji (Golden Mean of Poetry) award. In 2017, she was a laureate of the New Voices from Europe project. Her second book, Kodeks Pomylonych (Codex of the Insane), was published in 2020, and To Feed the Stone will be published in a bilingual edition by Dalkey Archive Press in 2021.

KATARZYNA SZUSTER-TARDI is a translator. Forthcoming translations include the books To Feed the Stone by Bronka Nowicka (Dalkey Archive Press, 2021) and Polish Literature and Genocide by Arkadiusz Morawiec (Routledge, 2021). She earned her M.A. in English studies from the University of Łódź, Poland, and Department of Foreign Languages, University of Nizwa in Oman. Recent translations have appeared in Denver Quarterly, LIT, Michigan Quarterly Review, Tripwire, Berlin Quarterly, and Seedings.

 

Toad Press + SMOL Fair

 

Join us for SMOL Fair, an alternative, virtual book fair  'live' from March 3-7, 2021!

Learn more about SMOL Fair on their website -- and don't forget to sign up for their mailing list for your chance to win free books from participating presses!

Toad Press is giving away some excellent chapbooks: The Tears (Olivia Rosenthal / Beatrice Mousli), The Night's Belly (Sara Tuss Efrik / Paul Cunningham), and Two-Step: A Boolean Comedrama (Jacques Jouet & Olivier Salon / Emma Ramadan & Chris Clarke)! 

And, we're offering a SMOLFAIR special: you can order 2 chapbooks for $10, including shipping during SMOL Fair! A great deal! Order here, March 1-7, 2021.

2021 Chapbook Series

We are delighted to share that the Toad Press International chapbook series will publish three new translations this year:

Codex of the Insane (Body and Related Matters), poems by Bronka Nowicka 

translated by Katarzyna Szuster

The Cheapest France in Town, poems by Seo Jung Hak

translated by Megan Sungyoon

Faith in Strangers, poems by Katarzyna Szaulińska 

translated by Mark Tardi

Look for these titles coming your way in Summer / Fall 2021.  

Thank you to all who submitted your work -- we are grateful to have had the opportunity to read so many wonderful translations during our recent open reading period! 

 

A Musical Education

 

A Musical Education

by Yaki Setton
translated by Sergio Waisman

 

27pp, paper 

Toad Press, 2020. $5.00 

cover design and artwork by Juan Pablo Fernandez

You can purchase a copy of A Musical Education here.

YAKI SETTON was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. He has published seven books of poetry, including Niñas [Girls] (Editorial bajo la luna, 2004), Nombres propios [Proper Names] (Editorial bajo la luna, 2010), La educación musical [A Musical Education] (Editorial bajo la luna, 2013), Lej-Lejá (Editorial bajo la luna, 2016), and El beso [The Kiss] (Editorial bajo la luna, 2018). Further information about the poet, including samples of and reviews of his work in Spanish, is available at:
yakisetton.com.ar.
 

SERGIO WAISMAN has translated, among others, three books by Ricardo Piglia, The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution by Mariano Azuela, and three titles for Oxford’s Library of Latin America series. In 2000 he received a NEA Translation Fellowship Award for his translation of Piglia’s The Absent City. His translation of Juan José Saer’s El limonero real [The Regal Lemon Tree] is forthcoming from Open Letter Books. His latest novel, El encargo, was published in 2019 by Editorial Manslava in Argentina and Neón Ediciones in Chile. He is a Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literatures at The George Washington University.

The Absolute Reader

The Absolute Reader

by Miri Ben Simhon
translated by Lisa Katz

20pp, paper 

Toad Press, 2020. $5.00 

cover art by Yair Aa

You can purchase a copy of The Absolute Reader here.

Miri Ben Simhon was born in Marseille in 1950 to Moroccan parents on their way to the new state of Israel. Her work, said by one critic to “strike the reader’s heart with wonder and sorrow,” appeared in three books published by mainstream Israeli presses during her lifetime, and one posthumous edition; in 2018 these were gathered into a volume including previously unpublished poems. All of Ben Simhon’s books received critical attention in Israeli newspapers when they were originally published, and a film has been made about her life and work. She died in 1996.

Lisa Katz (b. New York, in Jerusalem since 1983) is a translator of book-length works by Israeli poets Agi Mishol, Admiel Kosman and Tuvia Ruebner. Editor of the Israeli pages of Poetry International Archives, she has served as the the Rotterdam-based site’s interim central editor since 2017. Translator-in-residence at the University of Iowa MFA in Literary Translation in 2017, she taught most recently at Ben Gurion University. Her chapbook Are You With Me is available from Finishing Line Press and her poetry, in Hebrew translation, was published by the Am Oved Press.

Read a poem included in The Absolute Reader, "I have never needed God," in the July/August 2016 issue of Poetry Magazine.

Tune into a short reading and discussion of The Absolute Reader presented by Marcela Sulak for Israel in Translation. 

New translations for 2020!

We are so happy to share that the Toad Press International chapbook series will publish two new translations this year:

A Musical Education, poems by Yaki Setton 

translated by Sergio Waisman

The Absolute Reader, poems by Miri Ben Simhon

translated by Lisa Katz

Look for these titles in Summer / Fall 2020.  
 
Thank you to all who submitted your work -- we are grateful to have been able to read and consider so many of your wonderful translations during our open reading period!