Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize
Encyclopedia
Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is an annual literary prize honoring an outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the USA the previous year. The translator of the winning translation receives $10,000.00 and a stay at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (LCB). The prize was established in 1996 and is administered by the Goethe-Institut
, Chicago, and is funded by the German government.
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
, Chicago, and is funded by the German government.
Prize recipients
- 2011 Jean M. Snook for Gert JonkeGert JonkeGert Jonke was an Austrian poet, playwright and novelist.-Life:Jonke was born and educated in Klagenfurt, Austria. He attended the Gymnasium and the Conservatory...
's The Distant Sound - 2010 Ross Benjamin for Michael MaarMichael MaarMichael Maar is a German literary scholar and author.For his 1995 doctoral dissertation on Thomas Mann, titled Geister und Kunst, he was awarded the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. He was himself elected a member of the academy in 2002...
’s Speak, Nabokov - 2009 John Hargraves for Michael KrügerMichael Krüger (writer)Michael Krüger is a German writer, publisher and translator.Michael Krüger grew up in Berlin. After the graduating he was apprenticed to a publisher and later studied philosophy and literature...
's The Executor – A Comedy of Letters (Turiner Komödie) - 2008 David Dollenmayer for Moses Rosenkranz’ Childhood. An Autobiographical Fragment (Kindheit. Fragment einer Autobiographie)
- 2007 Peter ConstantinePeter ConstantinePeter Constantine is a British and American award-winning literary translator who has translated literary works from German, Russian, French, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Italian, Albanian, Dutch, and Slovene.-Biography:...
for Benjamin LebertBenjamin LebertBenjamin Lebert is a German author. He was born in Freiburg. His first novel Crazy, was published when Lebert was only 16 years old...
's The Bird is a Raven (Der Vogel ist ein Rabe) - 2006 Susan Bernofsky for Jenny ErpenbeckJenny Erpenbeck-Life:Jenny Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the Arabic translator Doris Kilias. Her grandparents are the authors Fritz Erpenbeck and Hedda Zinner. In Berlin she attended an Advanced High School, where she graduated in 1985...
’s The Old Child & Other Stories (Geschichte vom alten Kind) - 2005 Michael Henry HeimMichael Henry HeimMichael Henry Heim is a Professor of Slavic Languages, at the University California at Los Angeles . He received his doctorate at Harvard in 1971...
for Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
’s Death in VeniceDeath in VeniceThe novella Death in Venice was written by the German author Thomas Mann, and was first published in 1913 as Der Tod in Venedig. The plot of the work presents a great writer suffering writer's block who visits Venice and is liberated and uplifted, then increasingly obsessed, by the sight of a...
(Der Tod in Venedig) - 2004 Breon Mitchell for Uwe TimmUwe Timm-Life and work:Uwe Timm was the youngest son in his family. His brother, 16 years his senior, was a soldier in the Waffen SS and died in Ukraine in 1943...
’s novel Morenga - 2003 Margot Bettauer Dembo for Judith HermannJudith Hermann- Life :Hermann was born in West Berlin in the St. Joseph hospital. She grew up in the West Berlin neighborhood of Neukölln and remained there until the mid-nineties, when she moved to the district of Prenzlauer Berg in the former East Berlin....
's Summerhouse, later (Sommerhaus, Später) - 2002 Anthea BellAnthea BellAnthea Bell OBE is a British translator who has translated numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from French, German, Danish and Polish to English...
for W.G. Sebald’s novel AusterlitzAusterlitz (novel)Austerlitz is the final novel of W. G. Sebald, published in 2001. The book received the National Book Critics Circle Award.-Plot summary:... - 2001 Krishna Winston for Günther Grass's novel Too Far Afield
- 2000 Michael HofmannMichael HofmannMichael Hofmann is a German-born poet who writes in English and a translator of texts from German.-Biography:...
for Joseph RothJoseph RothJoseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...
's novel Rebellion (Die Rebellion) - 1999 Joel Agee for Heinrich von KleistHeinrich von KleistBernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.- Life :...
's play PenthesileaPenthesilea (Kleist)Penthesilea is a tragedy by the German playwright Heinrich von Kleist. The play, about the mythological Amazonian queen, Penthesilea, is an exploration of sexual frenzy. Goethe rejected the play as "unplayable".-Plot summary:... - 1998 John Brownjohn for Thomas BrussigThomas BrussigThomas Brussig is a German writer best known for his satirical novels that deal with the German Democratic Republic.- Life :...
's Heroes Like Us (Helden wie wir) - 1997 Leila Vennewitz for Jurek BeckerJurek BeckerJurek Becker was a Polish-born German writer, film-author and GDR dissident. His most famous novel is Jacob the Liar, which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during World War II for about two years and survived the Holocaust.-Childhood:Jurek Becker was born in 1937 and lived in the...
's Jacob the LiarJacob the LiarJacob the Liar is a novel written by the East German author Jurek Becker published in 1969. The German original title is Jakob der Lügner...
(Jakob der Lügner) - 1996 John E. WoodsJohn E. WoodsJohn E. Woods is a translator who specializes in translating German literature, since about 1978. His work includes much of the fictional prose of Arno Schmidt and the works of contemporary authors such as Ingo Schulze and Christoph Ransmayr...
for Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
's The Magic MountainThe Magic MountainThe Magic Mountain is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature....
(Der Zauberberg) and Arno SchmidtArno SchmidtArno Schmidt was a German author and translator.-Biography:Born in Hamburg, son of a police constable, Schmidt moved with his widowed mother to Lauban and attended the secondary school in Görlitz. He then worked as a clerk in a textile company in Greiffenberg...
's Nobodaddy's Children (Nobodaddy's Kinder)
External links
- Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize, official site.