Goethe-Institut New York | Current Writing Blog

Every so often we survey new translations on the market for our English-language readers, and are happy to bring you a look at some upcoming titles.

A new face on the scene is Ror Wolf, whose novel Two or Three Years Later (Open Letter, 2013) appears in a translation by Jennifer Marquardt. This series of observations of daily life has been compared to the work of Robert Walser, who is also represented here by New Directions' A Little Ramble: In the Spirit of Robert Walser. Translated by Susan Bernofsky and Christopher Middleton, Ramble is the result of gallerist Donald Young's invitation to artists to respond to Walser’s writing, resulting in over 50 works by such artists as Peter Fischli, David Weiss, and Thomas Schütte.

A new Joseph Roth title translated by Michael Hofmann, who also supplies an introduction, is always welcome, and this time it's The Emperor's Tomb (New York Review Books, 2013). Covering the two and a half decades that precede WWII, the novel relates the journey of a callow young man as he is introduced to financial ruin and the barbarism growing around him. NYRB is also bringing out, in its Classics series, Anna Seghers' Transit, with English by Margot Dembo, based on a new, definitive German edition of this story of exile.

And finally, there's a new Simon Brenner Krimi out as part of Melville House's International Crime series. The Bone Man is Annie Janusch's second Wolf Haas title in English, with hopefully more to follow.

In an earlier post we reported that translations of four German novels had made the longlist of the Best Translated Book Awards, established in 2007 by Three Percent. Now that the shortlist has been announced we're happy to see that two titles are still in the running for the fiction award: The Hunger Angel (Metropolitan Books), Philip Boehm's translation of Herta Müller's Atemschaukel, and My Father's Book by Urs Widmer, in a translation for Seagull Books by Donal McLaughlin.

In addition, Rosmarie Waldrop's translation, Almost 1 Book / Almost 1 Life (Burning Deck), of a collection by Elfriede Czurda, is on the shortlist for the BTBA for Poetry, just announced by the Poetry Foundation.

Each winning author and translator receives a $5,000 cash prize at an awards ceremony to be held in New York City on May 3, time and place to be announced.

One of our favorite authors, Jenny Erpenbeck, will be awarded the 2013 Evangelischer Buchpreis for her latest novel, Aller Tage Abend (Knaus, 2012). The Evangelical Book Prize is chosen from titles nominated by readers and decided upon by jury, and will be presented to Erpenbeck, along with the accompanying 5,000 euro purse, at the Alte Handelsbörse in Leipzig on May 15.

In its statement, the jury declared: "The audacious construction of the novel, which spans an entire century, succeeds due to the marvelous language that Jenny Erpenbeck has at her command." The novel's main character dies in infancy -- or does she? She dies as a young woman in love -- or does she? As a highly-respected figure, as someone who has been completely forgotten -- Erpenbeck tells the stories of how a life might have gone according to shifting versions of fate.

Novelist, playwright and short story author Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin in 1967 and made her literary debut in 1999 with the story collection, Geschichte vom Alten Kind. Her work has been translated into 18 languages, including three titles in English published by New Directions in translations by Susan Bernofsky.

Among the Adult Fiction finalists for this year's Indies Choice Book of the Year Awards just announced by the ABA is The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (Other Press), by Jan-Philipp Sendker in a translation by Kevin Wiliarty. Book of the Year winners and Honor Award recipients are chosen from titles nominated by ABA member booksellers to the Indie Next Lists.

Set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats covers the six decades from the 1950s to today. The story centers on a love letter a New York lawyer who has gone missing wrote years before to a Burmese woman. When the lawyer's daughter decides to locate the woman, her search leads her to a remote village and an incredible tale of hardship and love from her father's past.

The Indie Choice winners will be announced on April 18.

Reading/Discussion/Book Launch
04/01/13
7:00-9:00pm
Deutsches Haus at Columbia University
420 W. 116th St. (Amsterdam Ave./Morningside Dr.)
New York, NY 10027
Tel: +1 (212) 854-1858
In English
Free

For the second year in a row, students from Columbia's School of the Arts Graduate Programs work together with their peers from the Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig in translating each other’s work. The four collaborations of this Literary Translation Exchange Program are published as Word for Word / Wort für Wort 2013, which presents original writings side-by-side with the translations. At the book launch on April 1, Kevin Magruder and Ursula Kirchenmayer, Rachel Sur and Ellen Wesemüller, Michael Makowski and David Frühauf will read from and discuss their work. Presiding are Professor Susan Bernofsky, translator and Director of Literary Translation at Columbia, and Austrian novelist Dr. Josef Haslinger, Professor of Creative Writing at the DLL. A reception will follow.

The following evening, on April 2 from 7:00-8:30pm, a dramatic reading will be held in the Schapiro Studio located in the basement of Schapiro Hall at 605 W. 115 St. The collaborative work of the two student playwrights in the exchange will be presented by actors, followed by a Q & A session with the writers.

Staged Reading
03/24/13
7:00pm
Goethe-Institut Boston
170 Beacon Street
Boston, MA
English
Tickets: $10 ($5 students)
Info: +1 (617) 262-6050

This reading of Juri Sternburg's play, Der Penner ist jetzt schon wieder woanders ("Now the Jerk is Somewhere Else Again"), will be followed by a Q&A with the playwright and with director Guy Ben-Aharon as well as by a reception for audience and cast.

Translated by Kristina Wydra and Jennifer Whigham, the production features actors Alex Ates, Jared Brown, Maria Carreon, Patrick Curran, Patrick Greeley, Nash Hightauer, Anthony Jenkins, Nael Nacer, Rebecca Opstad, and Marc Pierre. Tickets can be purchased online.

“Now the Jerk is Somewhere Else Again” had its debut, following a Promising Play Award, at the Maxim Gorki Theater. The "Jerk" of the title is a drug dealer whom the characters Igor and Andrej are looking for when they step into a Berlin subway car. Failing to find him, they begin a killing spree, shooting anything and everything in sight, including God. Sternburg then sends the two on a nihilistic quest for meaning.

German author and playwright Juri Sternburg was born in 1983. After performing at the Berliner Ensemble and the Deutsches Theater Berlin, he experimented with graffiti and street art. Sternburg's first play, “6 Square Meter Chrome”, appeared in 2007, his first radio play in 2010. Sternburg's next play will premiere at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, where he lives and is currently at work on his first novel.

Conversation/Book Presentation
03/18/13
6:30pm
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10022
Tel: +1 (212) 319-5300
Free

heim.at.home author Diana Gregor presents her book of stories and photographs of ten Viennese Holocaust survivors who escaped from the Nazis and made their way to New York, where they live today. She is joined by two of the books subjects, Kurt Sonnenfeld and Gerda Lederer and by New York-based photographer David Plakke, along with Rachel Libeskind, who will lead a discussion of how this project came about.

Author Gregor recently stated in the ACFNY magazine that "apart from Kurt Sonnenfeld & Gerda Lederer, heim.at.home introduces eight other Austrian Holocaust survivors who live in New York. But this project was not only about preserving memories. heim.at.home is a project which for the first time uses a variety of media to cover this topic using the entire range of modern communication. In addition to the book, mobile apps were designed for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices, available for free download through the respective online portals. The app, developed in English and German, includes essays, short videos and interviews as well as interactive maps to retrace the journeys of the Holocaust survivors.”

Stefan-Heym-Preis goes to Christoph Hein

The city of Chemnitz will award its Internationaler Stefan-Heym-Preis to "kritischer Geist" novelist Christoph Hein. The award and its 40,000€ purse, usually presented every three years, will be given ahead of time this year on the 100th anniversary of Heym's birth, April 10.

The prize honors "critical and courageous" individuals who, "like Stefan Heym, have produced distinguished, lasting work as writers or journalists...Christoph Hein is a critical intellect in the best sense of the word," said Chemnitz Mayor Barbara Ludwig. Hein, born in 1944, is the author of novels, essays, stories, plays, poetry, and books for children. His most well-known novels are Der Tangospieler and Willenbrock, both translated into English by Philip Boehm. His most recent work is Weiskerns Nachlass (Suhrkamp, 2011). The Goethe-Institut Library holds these and other titles by Hein.

Frühe Vogel awarded Rauriser Literaturpreis

Frühe Vögel (Aufbau Verlag), the debut novel by German novelist Matthias Senkel, has been awarded the 2013 Rauriser Literaturpreis by the State of Salzburg, to be presented along with an 8,000€ cash prize on April 3, during the Rauriser Literaturtage. In its statement the jury declared that Frühe Vögel is "much more than merely a family history, however bizarre that history may be. It is a fabulous picaresque, an historical Bildungsroman, a fragmentary artist novel and a thrilling adventure story all rolled into one." Matthias Senkel, born in Greiz, Thuringia, in 1977, has published poems and prose in various journals and anthologies. He was the winner of the 17th Open Mike competition, sponsored by the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin and the Crespo Foundation. Senkel currently lives in Leipzig.