News

Dear Friends & Family of OOMPH! Press,

It’s certainly been a busy start to the year for us and, it seems, everyone else. Before taking the time to update you on some exciting things past, present and future, we want to say we hope each of you is safe and healthy and trying to make sense and adapt to the strange and unexpected circumstances the world has crafted for us. 

But there’s still much beauty out there, and many things to celebrate.

Poetry From Morocco

First and foremost, we wanted to congratulate OOMPH! translator Jake Syersak on his recent grant from PEN America, for his translation from the French of I, Caustic, by Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine. For those of you unfamiliar with Jake’s work, OOMPH! published a small chapbook of his translation of Khaïr-Eddine’s First Breaths (2019), which is available on the website as a free digital download. We’ll also be publishing his translation of Khaïr-Eddine’s Resurrection of Wildflowers, the first full-length book of poetry written by Khaïr-Eddine after he returned to Morocco from a long period of exile. You can read some excerpts of it here in issue seven of seedings. 

Poetry From The Philippines

Also, we’re excited to announce that preorders from the beautiful edition of Melismas, by Marlon Hacla, translated from the Filipino by Kristine Ong Muslim and beautifully illustrated by Tilde Acuña, are making their way around the world. Recently, a wonderful review appeared in Ligeia Magazine citing the book’s polytonality, its art, and how it’s “haunting and charged with an oppressive energy which brilliantly embodies the simultaneously corporeal and phantasmic nature of the poem.” For those still waiting on their copy, a selection of poems from the book recently appeared in Reckoning 5, a publication dedicated to creative writing on environmental justice. An excerpt will also be published in the April issue of Poetry Magazine.

"The cantos manifest an operative logic akin to afterimage and delirium, and we partake of the intricate wonders and terrors in this Boschian orgy, vacillating between the phantasmic and the embodied, the particular and the sublime, dreaming and waking, the world of the living and the world of the dead, the sensible realm and the noumenon, all ears to a persona singing at the brink of knowing and annihilation.”

—Cristian Tablazon
Nomina Nuda

Poetry From Austria

There was also a recent essay that included a round-up of Friederike Mayröcker’s poetry in translation written by Ryan Ruby for The Poetry Foundation. You can find it here. It delves deeply into the life and work of one of the world’s most famous Austrian writers and the lack of her work in English translation. OOMPH!’s From Embracing the Sparrow-Wall, or 1 Schumann-Madness translated from the German by Jonathan Larson also received a brief mention. The entire essay is a worthwhile read for those particularly interested in Mayröcker’s work, and why it’s so challenging to translate.

A Virtual Book Fair

This year, we’re very excited to be participating in SMOL Fair, a digital book fair that’s free for everyone. There are more than 150 small presses from around the world involved, as well as events, readings, book giveaways, and more. The fair will be held from March 3-7, 2021, so if you have the time to stop by or participate in any of the readings or events, please do so. During the fair, we'll be offering a 15% discount off our book bundles, which we've just updated to include Melismas (use the code SMOLFAIR at checkout). Keep up to date on OOMPH! Press and SMOL Fair happenings by following us on Twitter or Instagram.

Call for Submissions

Lastly, but certainly not least, we want to let everyone know that OOMPH! Press is currently open for submissions of full-length manuscripts of poetry and short prose in translation; individual pieces of poetry and short prose in translation; poetry and prose written in English for our next multilingual journal; and recipes for our first international multilingual cookbook...phew! Find more submission information here! If you’re interested in learning more about how the press operates and what type of work we’re looking for, our recent small press interview at Entropy is a great place to start. 

Send Us Your Work!

That’s it for now. We hope that everyone is staying safe and sound and doing the best they can to stay positive. As always, we’re eternally grateful for your support, friendship, and the beautiful literature you’re all helping us spread to the world and a wider English-speaking audience. 

All the best, 

Alex & Dan
The Editors
OOMPH! Press
www.oomphpress.com

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Last updated: March 1, 2021