Instytuty Polskie > Instytut Polski w Londynie > Events > Film > Interview with Ursula Phillips, Literature translator, Found In Translation 2026 awardee.
11.07.2026 Events, Film, History, Literature, Resources, Videos

Interview with Ursula Phillips, Literature translator, Found In Translation 2026 awardee.

In this episode, we sit down with Ursula Phillips, a renowned literary translator and academic. Ursula takes us behind the scenes of her incredible career, shares her unique philosophy on translation, and dives deep into her latest monumental achievement: translating Jacek Dukaj’s epic novel, Ice.

Celebrating a Historic Win

Ursula Phillips is the recent winner of the prestigious 2026 Found in Translation Award for her work on Ice. This marks the second time she has received this honour, having previously won in 2015 for Zofia Nałkowska’s Choucas.

The Found in Translation Award recognises the best English translation of Polish literature published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded annually by a joint jury from the Polish Book Institute, the Polish Cultural Institute London, and the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

What You’ll Hear in This Podcast

  • Career Beginnings & Motivation: Transitioning from Slavic language librarian to professional translator to make inaccessible Polish literature available.
  • Translating Ice by Jacek Dukaj: Tackling the archaic language, technical neologisms, and heavy Russian influences in this partition-era alternative history.
  • Focus on Women Writers: A systematic program to translate authors like Zofia Nałkowska, exploring 19th and 20th-century gender and psychological issues.
  • Advice for Translators: Industry insights on translating less widely read languages, refining English prose, and utilizing the Polish Book Institute.

Ursula Phillips is a premier literary translator and an Honorary Research Associate at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She holds advanced degrees in Russian and Polish, alongside a PhD from the Institute for Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her extensive portfolio includes celebrated translations of:

  • Wiesław Myśliwski’s Palace
  • Grażyna Borkowska’s Alienated Women
  • Maria Wirtemberska’s Malvina, or The Heart’s Intuition
  • Narcyza Żmichowska’s The Heathen

Listen to the episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qydTQWAmQU&t=730s

Additional Resources

Find out more about the Found in Translation Award here: https://www.bookinstitute.pl/programy…

Find out more about Ursula Phillips and her Found in Translation Award for 2026 here: https://instytutpolski.pl/london/2026…

Find out more about Jacek Dukaj’s “Ice” here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/discove…

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