Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize

Annual translator award by the Goethe Institute

The Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is an annual literary prize named for the German–American publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff "honoring an outstanding literary translation from German into English" published in the USA the previous year.[1]

The translator of the winning translation receives $10,000. The prize was established in 1996 and is funded by the German government. It was administered by the Goethe-Institut of Chicago until 2014.[2] Since 2015, the prize has been administered by the New York Goethe-Institut.[1]

Recipients

Year Translator Author Title Ref.
1996 John E. Woods Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain
Arno Schmidt Nobodaddy's Children
1997 Leila Vennewitz Jurek Becker Jacob the Liar
1998 John Brownjohn Thomas Brussig Heroes Like Us
1999 Joel Agee Heinrich von Kleist Penthesilea [3]
2000 Michael Hofmann Joseph Roth Rebellion
2001 Krishna Winston Günter Grass Too Far Afield
2002 Anthea Bell W. G. Sebald Austerlitz
2003 Margot Bettauer Dembo Judith Hermann Summerhouse, Later
2004 Breon Mitchell Uwe Timm Morenga
2005 Michael Henry Heim Thomas Mann Death in Venice
2006 Susan Bernofsky Jenny Erpenbeck The Old Child & Other Stories
2007 Peter Constantine Benjamin Lebert The Bird is a Raven
2008 David Dollenmayer Moses Rosenkranz Childhood. An Autobiographical Fragment
2009 John Hargraves Michael Krüger The Executor – A Comedy of Letters
2010 Ross Benjamin Michael Maar Speak, Nabokov
2011 Jean M. Snook Gert Jonke The Distant Sound [4][5]
2012 Burton Pike Gerhard Meier Isle of the Dead [6]
2013 Philip Boehm Gregor von Rezzori An Ermine in Czernopol
2014 Shelley Frisch Reiner Stach Kafka: The Years of Insight
2015 Catherine Schelbert Hugo Ball Flametti, or The Dandyism of the Poor [7][8]
2016 Daniel Bowles Christian Kracht Imperium [9]
2017 Charlotte Collins Robert Seethaler A Whole Life
2018 Isabel Fargo Cole Wolfgang Hilbig Old Rendering Plant [10]
2019 Damion Searls Uwe Johnson Anniversaries. From the Life of Gesine Cresspahl [11][12]
2020 Philip Boehm Christine Wunnicke The Fox and Dr. Shimamura [13]
2021 Jackie Smith Judith Schalansky An Inventory of Losses [14][15][16]
2022 Vincent Kling Heimito von Doderer The Strudlhof Steps [17]

References

  1. ^ a b Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize Archived 2020-09-23 at the Wayback Machine, official site.
  2. ^ "Helen-und-Kurt-Wolff-Übersetzerpreis – Wolff Translator's Prize". Online-Ausgabe des Handbuchs der Kulturpreise (in German). 2013. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  3. ^ Schulte, Rainer (1999). "The Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize and the Retranslation of Literary Works". Translation Review. 57 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1080/07374836.1999.10523735. ISSN 0737-4836.
  4. ^ Post, Chad W. (20 May 2011). "2011 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize". Three Percent (Rochester University). Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  5. ^ "Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize 2011". WBEZ. 13 June 2011. Archived from the original on 27 June 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
  6. ^ "Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize 2012". WBEZ. 11 June 2012. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
  7. ^ "Catherine Schelbert, Prize Recipient 2015". Goethe Institut. May 2015. Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Bernofsky, Susan (2015-05-08). "2015 Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize to Catherine Schelbert". TRANSLATIONiSTA. Archived from the original on 2023-02-27. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  9. ^ "Daniel Bowles". Goethe-Institut. May 2016. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  10. ^ Albanese, Andrew (2018-05-08). "Isabel Fargo Cole Wins 2018 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  11. ^ "Damion Searls ausgezeichnet". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Munich. 23 May 2019. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  12. ^ "Damion Searls wins the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for 'Anniversaries'". NY Review of Books. 7 May 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Boehm Wins German Translation Prize". Publishers Weekly. 2020-04-04. Archived from the original on 2021-02-27. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  14. ^ "Jackie Smith Wins 2021 Wolff Translator's Prize". Publishers Weekly. May 24, 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  15. ^ Anderson, Porter (2021-06-24). "In New York: Jackie Smith Wins the $10,000 Wolff Translator's Prize". Publishing Perspectives. Archived from the original on 2021-07-03. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  16. ^ Caplan, Walker (2021-05-21). "Here's the winner of the 2021 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize". Literary Hub. Archived from the original on 2022-12-08. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  17. ^ Anderson, Porter (18 May 2022). "Vincent Kling Wins the 2022 Wolff Translator's Prize". Publishing Perspectives. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2022.

External links

  • Official website (in German and English)