Imogen Taylor is a British literary translator. She translates works from German to English, and has previously won the Goethe-Institut Prize for her work. Her notable translations include
Sasha Marianna Salzmann
Sasha Marianna Salzmann (born in Volgograd, Soviet Union on 21 August 1985) is a German playwright, essayist, theatre curator and novelist. She is writer in residence at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin where she was artistic director of the stu ...
's novel, ''Beside Myself'',
Melanie Raabe's ''The Trap'', as well as Florian Huber's ''Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945;'' and
Sascha Arango's novel'', The Truth and Other Lies.'' Her work has been shortlisted for the
Schlegel-Tieck Prize
The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German Translation is a literary translation award given by the Society of Authors in London. Translations from the German original into English are considered for the prize. The value of the prize is £3,000. and
Helen and Kurt Wolff's Translator Prize.
Biography
Taylor completed her undergraduate education at New College, Oxford where she studied French and German. She completed her doctorate at the Humboldt University, in Berlin, where she studied bilingual couples in 18th century French novels.
She has lived in Berlin since 2001.
Career
In 2015, Taylor published a translation of
Sascha Arango's novel, ''The Truth and Other Lies'' (''Die Wahrheit und andere Lügen''). Her translation was listed as ''The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015. In 2016, Taylor won the Goethe-Institut award for an excerpt of her translation ''Momente der Klarheit'' by
Jackie Thomae (Hanser Berlin).
In the same year, the ''Seattle Times's'' critic Adam Woog listed her translation of
Melanie Raabe's ''The Trap'' as one of the 10 best mysteries of the year.
In 2018, ''The Guardian'' praised her "sure-footed" translation of ''Fear'' by
Dirk Kurbjuweit (Orion) and listed it as one of the best books of 2018. The translation also earned praise from the ''Irish Times'' and ''Toronto Star''.
In 2019, she published an English translation of German author and historian Florian Huber's best-selling account of mass suicides in Germany towards the end of World War II, titled ''Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945.'' Taylor earned praise from the ''Financial Times'', with reviewer Ruta Sepetys praising her "vivid translation", as well as from the ''Telegraph'', which reviewed her "fine translation.".
In 2021, Taylor translated
Sasha Marianna Salzmann
Sasha Marianna Salzmann (born in Volgograd, Soviet Union on 21 August 1985) is a German playwright, essayist, theatre curator and novelist. She is writer in residence at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin where she was artistic director of the stu ...
's novel, ''Beside Myself'', from German to English. The translation was received well, and was shortlisted for two major German-English translation awards: the
Schlegel-Tieck Prize
The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German Translation is a literary translation award given by the Society of Authors in London. Translations from the German original into English are considered for the prize. The value of the prize is £3,000. and the
Helen and Kurt Wolff's Translator Prize.
Awards
* 2016: Winner, Goethe-Institut Award for a translation of an extract from ''Momente der Klarheit'' by
Jackie Thomae (Hanser Berlin)
* 2020: Shortlisted, Schlegel-Tieck Prize for a translation of Sasha Marianna Salzmann's ''Beside Myself''
* 2021: Shortlisted,
Helen and Kurt Wolff's Translator Prize for a translation of
Sasha Marianna Salzmann
Sasha Marianna Salzmann (born in Volgograd, Soviet Union on 21 August 1985) is a German playwright, essayist, theatre curator and novelist. She is writer in residence at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin where she was artistic director of the stu ...
's ''Beside Myself''
* 2021: Longlisted,
Dublin Literary Award
The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...
2020, for a translation of
Sasha Marianna Salzmann
Sasha Marianna Salzmann (born in Volgograd, Soviet Union on 21 August 1985) is a German playwright, essayist, theatre curator and novelist. She is writer in residence at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin where she was artistic director of the stu ...
's ''Beside Myself''
Bibliography
Translations from German to English:
* (2015) Sascha Arango, ''The truth and other lies (''Melbourne : Text Publishing Company ; Scoresby : Penguin Group Australia)
* (2016) Anja Reich-Osang, ''The Scholl case : the deadly end of a marriage'' (Melbourne, Vic. : Text Publishing)
* (2017) Dirk Kurbjuweit, ''Fear'' (Harper, New York)
* (2017) Melanie Raabe, ''The Trap'' (Melbourne, Victoria : Text Publishing Company)
* (2019) Melanie Raabe, ''The Shadow'' (Melbourne, Vic. : Text Publishing)
* (2019)
Sasha Marianna Salzmann
Sasha Marianna Salzmann (born in Volgograd, Soviet Union on 21 August 1985) is a German playwright, essayist, theatre curator and novelist. She is writer in residence at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin where she was artistic director of the stu ...
, ''Beside Myself'' (New York : Other Press)
* (2020) Florian Huber, ''Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945'' (Little, Brown Spark, New York)
* (2021) Dirk Kurbjuweit, ''The missing'' (Melbourne, Victoria : The Text Publishing Company)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Imogen
21st-century British translators
21st-century British women writers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)