To Feed the Stone

by Bronka Nowicka, Katarzyna Szuster (Translator)

In her audacious debut To Feed the Stone , Bronka Nowicka offers writing that is both timeless and timely. Using the language of folk narrative, like Italo Calvino, Russell Edson and Jan Svankmajer before her, Nowicka’s prose poems take us through the stark and disorienting world of a child––a world that excavates the border of appearances in a constant search for the essence of connection. The poet reconfigures the dynamics between people and objects, cause and effect, the body and the outside world, and the tenuous boundaries between death and life. As Nowicka’s child-narrator poignantly observes after discovering the body of a dead family “Her head was hanging over the armrest, her mouth open wide as if, with her whole body, she was taking the last photo of this world.” An ant ground between fingers smells of vinegar. A butterfly has powder, a mole has a tailcoat. You can roll filth down your skin. Old people smell like borsch. You have butter behind your fingernails where splinters can get in. There are hunch-backed people and crazy people but not dogs or birds. Sucking on the salty knee, the child the only thing that separates you from the world is the skin. Thanks to skin, you’re not swallowed up by the vastness of things. Excerpt of “Tights” from To Feed the Stone

112 pages, Paperback

Published May 25, 2021

About the author

Bronka Nowicka (born 1974) is a Polish writer and artist. She was born in Radomsk and studied film direction at Łódź Film School. She also studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. She went on to pursue a PhD in fine art, focusing on multimedia. Nowicka's interest in new media has led her to experiment with tomographics and tomovideo.

Nowicka is also an accomplished writer. Her first book, a collection of prose poetry titled Nakarmić kamień (To Feed a Stone), appeared in 2015. It won the Nike Literary Award, Poland's most prestigious literary award. It was the first time that the prize had been given to a debut work. The book also won the Złoty Środek Poezji (Golden Mean of Poetry) Award.

In 2017, the New Voices From Europe project named Nowicka as one of the most promising writers in Europe. Her work has been translated into English, German, Russian and a variety of European languages.

Reviews

[Benjamin Niespodziany]

Like Daniil Kharms arm wrestling with Russell Edson. Insane and absurd and sad and confused and lost in translation. "They shoved food in their heads and pulled out words."