Susan Bernofsky (born 1966) is an American translator of German-language literature and author. She is best known for bringing the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports * Swiss Internation ...

writer Robert Walser to the attention of the English-speaking world, translating many of his books and writing his biography. She has also translated several books by

Jenny Erpenbeck Jenny Erpenbeck (born 12 March 1967) is a German writer and opera director, recipient of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Life Born in East Berlin, Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the ...

and Yoko Tawada. Her prizes for translation include the 2006 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize, the 2012

Calw Hermann Hesse Prize The Calw Hermann Hesse Prize is a literary prize awarded since 1990. It is named after the German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter Hermann Hesse. Alternating every year since 2017, the International Hermann Hesse Prize of the Foundation (awarde ...

, the 2015 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and the 2015

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.

. She was also selected for a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

in 2014. In 2017 she won the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for her translation of ''Memoirs of a Polar Bear'' by Yoko Tawada. In 2018 she was awarded the MLA's Lois Roth Award for her translation of ''Go, Went, Gone'' by

. She teaches at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Books

* ''Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser'' (Yale University Press, 2021) ** Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography * ''In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means'' (co-editor with

Esther Allen Esther Allen (born June 29, 1962) is a writer, professor, and translator of French-language and Spanish-language literature into English. She is on the faculties of Baruch College (Department of Modern Languages & Comparative Literature) and the ...

, Columbia University Press, 2013)

Translations

Robert Walser

* ''Looking at Pictures'' * ''The Walk'' * ''Berlin Stories'' * ''The Assistant'' * ''Microscripts'' * ''The Tanners'' * ''The Robber'' * ''Masquerade and Other Stories''

Jenny Erpenbeck Jenny Erpenbeck (born 12 March 1967) is a German writer and opera director, recipient of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Life Born in East Berlin, Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the ...

* ''The Old Child and Other Stories'' * ''The Book of Words'' * ''Visitation'' * ''The End of Days'' * ''Go, Went, Gone''

Yoko Tawada

* ''Memoirs of a Polar Bear'' * ''The Naked Eye'' * ''Where Europe Begins''

Selected others

* ''

The Metamorphosis ''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...

'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 2014) by

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

* ''Perpetual Motion'' by

Paul Scheerbart Paul Karl Wilhelm Scheerbart (8 January 1863 in Danzig – 15 October 1915 in Berlin) was a German author of speculative fiction literature and drawings. He was also published under the pseudonym ''Kuno Küfer'' and is best known for the bo ...

* ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

'' (

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

opera libretto) by

Emanuel Schikaneder Emanuel Schikaneder (born Johann Joseph Schickeneder; 1 September 1751 – 21 September 1812) was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer, and composer. He wrote the libretto of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera ''The Magic Flute'' and was ...

commissioned by director

Isaac Mizrahi Isaac Mizrahi (born October 14, 1961) is an American fashion designer, television presenter and chief designer of the Isaac Mizrahi brand for Xcel Brands. Based in New York City, he is best known for his eponymous fashion lines. Mizrahi was prev ...

for the Opera Theatre of St. Louishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBrM-7ATkRA Isaac Mizrahi in conversation with Susan Bernofsky and Anne Bogart * ''

The Black Spider ''The Black Spider'' is a novella by the Swiss writer Jeremias Gotthelf written in 1842. Set in an idyllic frame story, old legends are worked into a Christian-humanist allegory about ideas of good and evil. Though the novel is initially divide ...

'' (New York Review Books, 2013) by

Jeremias Gotthelf Albert Bitzius (4 October 179722 October 1854) was a Swiss novelist; best known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf. Biography Bitzius was born at Murten, where his father was pastor. The Bitzius family had once belonged to the Bernese patrici ...

* ''False Friends'' by

Uljana Wolf Uljana Wolf is a German poet and translator (from English and Polish) known for exploring multilingualism in her work. Wolf works in both Berlin and New York. She teaches German at New York University. Uljana Wolf was born in East Berlin in 1979. ...

* '' Siddhartha'' (Modern Library, 2006) by

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include '' Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and '' The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual ...

* ''Celan Studies'' by Peter Szondi * ''The Trip to Bordeaux'' by Ludwig Harig * ''Anecdotage: A Summation'' (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996) by Gregor von Rezzori

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernofsky, Susan American translators 1966 births Living people German–English translators American women writers Literary translators 21st-century American women