Polymorph Editions was founded as a printer of fine press editions in 1992, and is now focused on Asian writers in translation.

Our first collection, No Poetry: Selected Poems of Che Qianzi, translated by Yunte Huang, was published in November 2019. Forthcoming publications include Jennifer Feeley’s translation of the Selected Works of Shi Tiesheng. 

Some of the collections that have purchased fine press works by Polymorph Editions include: University of California, San Diego Geisel Library Mandeville Special Collections Library; Brown University, The John Hay Library; Oxford University, Bodleian Library; University of Houston, Special Collections Library; University of Buffalo, Special Collections; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Hatcher Graduate Library, Special Collections; Boston University, Special Collections Library; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Memorial Library, Private Press Collection; Harvard College Library, Poetry Room; and Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Arts of the Book Collection.

Polymorph Pressmark copy copy

The hand carved seal for Polymorph Editions is a representation of the Chinese characters 新日日新, and refers to the legend cited by Thoreau, and later by Ezra Pound as the basis for the dictum MAKE IT NEW. 

“They say that characters were engraven on the bathtub of king Tching-thang to this effect: ‘renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.’ I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages.”

—Henry David Thoreau Walden, 1854