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.
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.
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'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.
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.
