[08/18/26] Štajner, Tamara: Loopholes

Toad Press, chapbook

Translated by Rebecca Weingart

Publication Date: August 18, 2026

Publisher Marketing: 

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.”