You might have already heard the big news: our almost-20-year-old micropress, the Toad Press International chapbook series, has joined forces with the very cool Veliz Books! As of this summer, Toad Press has become an imprint of Veliz.

I’m excited about what Toad Press’s new imprint status means for the press, but I’m also excited about what it means for me. I started Toad Press because I wanted to create new literary connections, and because I wanted to stay involved in the literary community. But I realize in some ways my DIY methods have been antithetical to community building. Now, Toad Press is part of team. So next month, when I’m home formatting and printing and folding copies of Faith in Strangers, Mark Tardi’s translation of Katarzyna Szaulińska’s poems, the questions I’ll be asking myself will be a little bit different. Instead of wondering about if I should keep the series going for another year, I will ask instead: Which Veliz title would pair well with this translation? How can Toad and Veliz use our platforms to further promote and share various literary voices? Should we offer a book bundle for our readers? What else might we take on together? How and when can we best support our translators, our authors, and each other?

– “Toad Press: Working Alone, Working Together”

We even made a neat new logo to put on the back of our Toad Press chapbooks:

Read more in my short essay at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics.