14.04.2020 Literature

Found in Translation: New Books from Poland

The Book Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The Harriman Institute, Columbia University
420 W 118th St, New York, NY 10027
Introduced by Eliza Rose and moderated by Christopher J. Caes
12pm – 1:30pm

Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Discussion with Krzysztof Koehler and Jennifer Croft and moderated by Izabela J. Barry
7pm – 8:30pm

Since 2008, the Found in Translation Award has annually celebrated the author or co-authors of the best English translation of Polish literature published in the previous year. Taken together, the Award’s past and present nominees make a useful roadmap for the literary landscape in Poland today. At this event, Polish and American experts in the literary field will share their insights on Polish literature in translation.

Krzysztof Koehler, Deputy Director of the Polish Book Institute, will provide a brief overview of the background and history of the Found in Translation Award: a platform for promoting contemporary Polish literature by supporting and showcasing emerging writers and translators. He will present this year’s nominees and foreground the uniqueness of contemporary literature coming out of Poland today. He will introduce books recently translated and published in the United States and United Kingdom. The event will end with an open discussion on translations joined by Jennifer Croft – acclaimed translator and 2018 Found in Translation Laureate at the Brooklyn Public Library. Curious readers are invited to come encounter new books from Poland.

Krzysztof Koehler (born 1968) is a poet, essayist, literary critic, scriptwriter, deputy & programming director of the Polish Book Institute (Instytut Ksiazki). He works as a professor of literature and an expert on the history of Polish Baroque at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. He was an editor of ‘brulion’ (a legendary literary magazine published in the 80s and 90s), a lecturer at universities in Poland and in the USA, a TV documentalist and the director of a Polish TV channel “Kultura”.

Jennifer Croft won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for her translation from Polish of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights. She has also received NEA, Cullman, PEN, Fulbright and MacDowell fellowships and grants, as well as the inaugural Michael Henry Heim Prize for Translation, the 2018 Found in Translation Award and a Tin House Scholarship for her novel Homesick, originally written in Spanish, forthcoming in English from Unnamed Press in September and in Spanish from Entropía in 2020.

Found in Translation Award was established in 2008. It is given every year to an author/authors of the best Polish literature translation into English that was published in a book form in the past calendar year.
The award is given by the jury consisting of representatives of the Book Institute, the Polish Cultural Institute in London and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York. The Book Institute’s director presides over the jury.
The award winner’s name is announced during the award presentation ceremony that each time takes place in the winner’s country of origin, if possible, during the International Book Fair in this country. The candidates can be nominated by a natural or legal person from Poland and abroad.

Scheduled Literature