The Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize honors a master translator from German with a $10,000 prize (awarded on the basis of a single book rather than a life’s work). This year’s shortlist, drawn from the 30 books that were submitted, has three books on it. The winner will be announced at an event at the Goethe-Institut on April 27. Wishing the best of luck to the shortlisted translators! Here they are:
- Charlotte Collins, for her translation of Robert Seethaler’s Ein ganzes Leben (A Whole Life, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2016)
- Tony Crawford, for his translation of Navid Kermani’s Zwischen Koran und Kafka (Between Quran & Kafka
Polity Books, 2016) - Michael Hofmann, for his translation of Jakob Wassermann’s Joseph Kerkhovens dritte Existent (My Marriage
New York Review Books, 2016)
Thanks for sharing this, Susan. The second book sounds particularly interesting. I understand the translation was from German to English…
Yes, it’s a translation from the German original. Kermani is a German-Iranian author from Cologne who writes in German. The book is a collection of essays about German literature, Middle Eastern topics, and contemporary European political issues. Sometimes simultaneously.