Selected from the 24 German-to-English translations published in 2023 that were submitted for the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, this shortlist of 6 books celebrates the art and craft of translation in an array of fictional and nonfictional forms.
The following titles, all published in the USA or Canada in 2023, were submitted for consideration for this year's Wolff Translator's Prize:
Shelley Frisch, jury chair of the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, reflects on the 25 year history of the prize in 2021, its significance to literature in translation, and its role in honoring the Wolff family’s extraordinary legacy in publishing.
Alexander Wolff, grandson of Kurt Wolff and author of
Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home, elucidates his grandfather's perennial undertaking to establish himself as a publisher on both sides of the Atlantic.
Kurt Wolff, joined later by his wife Helen, was one of the most outstanding and innovative publishers in Germany of the 1920s. Helen and Kurt Wolff immigrated to New York in 1941, and founded Pantheon Books, a publishing house devoted mainly to the translation of German and other European literature.
Dean Whiteside
Translation Grant Program Liaison
dean.whiteside@goethe.de
Goethe-Institut New York
30 Irving Place
New York, NY 10003
The Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is supported by the Friends of Goethe New York, the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the German Consulate General New York, and Alexander Wolff.
