This annual prize, established in Chicago in 1996, honours an exceptional literary translation of a German work published in the United States in English. The prize is funded by the German government and the winner receives $10,000.

 

The Wolffs were outstanding and innovative publishers in Germany in the 1920s. After emigrating to New York in 1941 they founded Pantheon Books, a publishing house devoted mainly to German and European literature in translation. In 1961 the couple joined Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and became co-publishers with their own imprint, Helen and Kurt Wolff Books. Upon her husband’s death in 1963, Helen Wolff continued working with authors on the Wolff list, expanding it to include Karl Jaspers, Walter Benjamin, Uwe Johnson, Günter Grass, Max Frisch and many others. Her work earned her an Inter Nationes Award, the Goethe Medal, and honorary doctorates from three universities. In 1994 she received the Friedrich Gundolf Prize from the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (the German Academy for Language and Literature) for her promotion of German culture in the USA, and for making German literature accessible to American readers.

 

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Translator Jean M. Snook

By the end of January, publishers submit six copies of a translation published and distributed during the previous year. Entries may include novels, novellas, short stories, plays, poetry, biographies, essays, and correspondence. A five-member jury selects the winning translation. The prize winner receives the award at a ceremony in Chicago hosted by the German Consul General of Chicago and the Goethe-Institut Chicago. Former recipients include Peter Constantine, Susan Bernofsky, Michael Henry Heim, Breon Mitchell, Anthea Bell, Krishna Winston, Michael Hofmann, and John E. Woods. This year, Jean M. Snook received the prize for her translation of Gert Jonke’s Der ferne Klang (‘The Distant Sound’, Dalkey Archive Press).

 

For further information, contact Werner Ott: ott@chicago.goethe.org

 

 

 

 

In late 2010, the Goethe-Institut New York received a generous gift made in the memory of Frederick Gutekunst, professor of German for more than thirty years at Hunter College in New York, and his wife Grace. The Gutekunst Prize for Young Translators has now been established with the aim of identifying outstanding young translators and assisting them in establishing contact with the US translation and publishing communities. The annual Gutekunst competition is open to all US-based college students and translators who will be under the age of thirty-five at the time of the judges’ decision, and have not published a book-length translation. Translations of an approximately fifteen-page excerpt from a German-language literary work chosen by the Goethe-Institut New York are submitted to a jury of three experts in German literature and translation. The winner receives an invitation to the Helen and Kurt Wolff Symposium, held annually in June at the Goethe- Institut Chicago. The $2,500 prize is awarded during the symposium where the winning translation is formally presented before being published on the website of the Goethe-Institut and, in agreement with the

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Translator Kari Driscoll

German publisher of the work, used by the German Book Office in negotiations with US publishers. The winner of the first Gutekunst Prize, Kari Driscoll, is now under contract to translate Martin Mosebach’s Was davor geschah (Hanser Verlag, 2010), a successful start to their promotion of the next generation of German translators.

 

For further information, contact Edna McCown: mccown@newyork.goethe.org

 

 

 

 

Launched in 2011, the New Books in German Emerging Translators Programme runs twice a year. NBG commissions a group of up-and-coming translators to produce sample translations from the best new books in German. The programme aims to promote the careers of emerging translators, providing experience, advice and contacts, as well as to produce top-class sample translations that will increase the chances of international rights sales. The focus is on interaction and exchange: a translation competition is held to select the six participants, and the successful candidates attend a translation workshop with leading translator Shaun Whiteside. A dedicated web forum allows the participants to share their queries and draft translations with each other before and after the workshop, pooling useful resources for translation and offering advice and tips on their draft translations. Each translator works particularly closely with one other, who advises on the final translation. Samples of around 2,500 words are downloadable from the NBG website and the full 4,000-word samples can be requested directly from NBG.

 

The Autumn 2011 Emerging Translators Programme has prepared translations of the following novels, all downloadable from the NBG website:

 

 

For further information, contact Charlotte Ryland: nbg@london.goethe.org