Esther Kinsky

Esther Kinsky at the Leipzig Book Fair 2018

Esther Kinsky (born September 12, 1956 in Engelskirchen ) is a German literary translator and author of novels and poetry.

Life

Kinsky grew up in the Rhineland and studied Slavic Studies in Bonn . She works as a literary translator from Polish, English and Russian and as an author of prose and poetry. After years in London, she currently lives in Berlin.

Esther Kinsky has received several awards for both her translation and her literary work. In 2015 she received a. a. the Kranichstein Literature Prize and the SWR best list prize for Am Fluss . Recurring themes in her work are the comprehensibility of perception through language and the associated memory processes, especially in the context of foreigners. In 2016 Kinsky took over the one-year Thomas Kling poetics professorship at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and in 2017/2018 the August Wilhelm von Schlegel visiting professorship for the poetics of translation at the Free University of Berlin .

In 2018, Hain: Geländeroman was published , in which she describes the view of a grieving person on the world. In the series Essay and Discourse by Deutschlandfunk , she distinguished this novel from the literary form of nature writing . The novel won the Leipzig Book Fair 2018 award in the “ Fiction ” category . In 2019, Kinsky gave the Hildesheim poetics lecture in the Literaturhaus St. Jakobi. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk 2019, she explained her decision, after translating Olga Tokarczuk's novel Unrast in 2009, not to translate any further books by the later winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2018). The author's literary language never challenged her enough. In the interview, Kinsky suggested that Tokarczuk's texts were poorly edited in the original , while the translations had different requirements. The literary criticism would then blame the translations for stylistic errors .

Kinsky was married to the British translator Martin Chalmers (1948-2014).

At the end of 2019, Esther Kinsky was accepted into the German Academy for Language and Poetry .

Quote

“I see translators of literature as artists in language. It is of course a difficult balancing act to say where is art, where is handicraft, I have dealt with that for a long time, but I don't think that it is for my understanding of this activity - and I really just want to be very special Talking about me, such a role assignment is beneficial. "

- Kinsky : in an interview with Susanne Burg, Deutschlandradio , August 13, 2013

Awards and grants

• 2000 working grant from the German Translator Fund for Olga Tokarczuk's Taghaus, Nachthaus
• 2002 Brücke Berlin Literature and Translator Prize (with Olga Tokarczuk) for Taghaus Nachthaus
• 2002 Working grant from the German Translator Fund for Zygmunt Haupt's Der Ring aus Papier
• 2005 Cross-border commuter grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation
• 2005 Working grant from the German Translator Fund for Zygmunt Haupts Vorhut
• 2006 Residence grant from the German Translation Fund in Visby
• 2008 working grant from the German Translation Fund for Olga Tokarczuk's Unrast
• 2009 Paul Celan Prize
• 2010 scholarship for literature from the Berlin Senate
• 2010 Guest of Honor Scholarship Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop
• 2011 Karl Dedecius Prize for German-Slavic translations (in both directions), at the same time as Ryszard Turczyn
• 2014 longlist for the German Book Prize with Am Fluss
• 2014 Franz Hessel Prize
• 2015 Kranichsteiner Literature Prize , especially for Am Fluss
• 2015 award of the SWR best list for Am Fluss
• 2016 Adelbert von Chamisso Prize
• 2016 Thomas Kling lecturer in poetry at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn,
• 2017 August Wilhelm von Schlegel Visiting Professorship for Poetics of Translation , Free University of Berlin in the winter semester / 2018
• 2018 Düsseldorf Literature Prize for Hain: Geländeroman
• 2018 International Hermann Hesse Prize (as a translator), together with Joanna Bator
• 2018 Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair ( fiction ) for Hain: Geländeroman
• 2019 one-year scholarship from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe
• 2020 Erich Fried Prize (named by Maja Haderlap )
• 2020 W.-G.-Sebald Literature Prize for the text Kalkstein
• 2020 German Prize for Nature Writing , together with Ulrike Draesner

Works

As a translator (selection)

• Anka Grupińska : In a circle. Talks with Jewish fighters. New Critique, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-8015-0266-X .
• Joseph O'Connor : Inishowen Blues . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 978-3-10-054010-2 .
• Olga Tokarczuk : day house, night house . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-13166-7 .
• Olga Tokarczuk: Last Stories (Ostatnie historie). Novel. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-421-05902-0 .
• Olga Tokarczuk: Restlessness . Schöffling, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89561-465-1 .
• Zyta Rudzka : Doctor Josefs most beautiful . Ammann Verlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-250-60124-1 .
• Magdalena Tulli : This time (Skaza). Schöffling, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-89561-461-3 .
• Piotr Szewc : The Book of One Day. Zamość, July 1934 (Zagłada). Novel. Edition FotoTapeta, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940524-15-7 .
• Joanna Bator : Sandberg (Piaskowa Góra). Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42222-9 .
• Joanna Bator: Wolkenfern (Chmurdalia). Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-42405-6 .
• Henry David Thoreau : In Praise of the Wild . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-88221-076-7 .
• James Leslie Mitchell : Scenes from Scotland . Guggolz Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-945370-06-3 .
• John Clare : Journey from Essex and Autobiographical Fragments . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-95757-327-8 .
• Iain Sinclair : The Edge of the Orizont. In the footsteps of John Clares "Journey from Essex" . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-95757-326-1 .
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon : A Song of the Sunset . Guggolz Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-945370-15-5 .
• John Clare : Murmurs of wind and trembling thistle . Sketches from his life. Golden Luft Verlag, Mainz 2020, ISBN 978-3-9818555-8-6 .

As an author

• Mali . Picture book. Gildenstern, Bad Honnef 1987, ISBN 3-926589-00-0 .
• Our foreign country: Tanzanian travel picture book . Gildenstern, Bad Honnef 1987, ISBN 3-926589-02-7 .
• Who's afraid of witches here? Children's book. Gildenstern, Bad Honnef 1989, ISBN 3-926589-07-8 .
• Summer retreat . Novel. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-88221-722-3 .
• The unmoved script of the year . Poetry book. Matthes & Seitz Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-88221-535-9 .
• Banatsko . Novel. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88221-723-0 .
• One evening in winter . Children's book. Illustrated by Sarah Fricke. Jacoby & Stuart, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-941787-44-5 . With a CD with a reading by the author and music.
• Departure for Patagonia . Poetry book. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-88221-585-4 .
• The captain and Mimi Kätt . Children's book. Illustrated by Gerda Raidt . Jacoby & Stuart, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-941787-85-8 .
• Foreign speaking: thoughts on translating . Essay. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-038-5 .
• Nature reserve . Volume of poetry, with photographs by the author. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-073-6 .
• By the river . Novel. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-95757-056-7 .
• Polish poetic. Ed. Lisa Palmes , conception EK- Anthologie, with Jacek Gutorow, Marta Podgórnik , Dariusz Sośnicki , Adam Wiedemann , Jakobe Mansztajn , Katarzyna Fetlińska. Übers. Lisa Palmes, VdÜ . Book | Bund, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-048086-7 .
• with Martin Chalmers: Karadag October 13: Notes from the cold Crimea . Travel report. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-143-4 .
• Opo's trip . Children's book, with illustrations by Falk Nordmann. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95757-238-7 .
• On the cold slope: viagg 'invernal . Poetry book. Matthes & Seitz Berlin, Berlin 2016 ISBN 978-3-95757-222-6 .
• Irrgast. Detours to rename the world . Inaugural lecture for the Thomas Kling poetics lectureship, Bonn, April 28, 2016, in: Schreibheft , 87, 2016, pp. 215–223
• Hain: Terrain novel . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-518-42789-7 .
• kő növény kökény . Poetry book. Thanhäuser, Ottensheim 2018, ISBN 978-3-900986-93-3 .
• Slates , poems. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-518-42921-1

As editor

• 21 degrees blue. My Balkans . Travel stories by herself, further texts by Béla Hamvas , Jonas Mekas , David Albahari , Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau and others. a. Copybook , 75th Rigodon, Essen 2010, ISBN 3-924071-31-4 . content

Web links

• Literature by and about Esther Kinsky in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and information on the work of Esther Kinsky at Literaturport
• Esther Kinsky at Perlentaucher .
• Kinsky, Esther in: Polish personal database.
• Excerpt from Sommerfrische read by Kinsky .
• Press release from the Robert Bosch Stiftung on the 2016 Chamisso Prize
• Kinsky : Laudation, Paul Celan Prize to Rosemarie Tietze . Translate , H. 1, 2011, p. 5; in the dossier Russian literature
• Review of “Am Fluss”, Die Zeit , September 18, 2014, by Susanne Mayer
• Forerunners of poets. Radegundis Stolze about the award of the Karl Dedecius Prize 2011, with statements about the prize and the two winners. ReLÜ , Review Journal for Translations, No. 12, 2011
• The Wiesbaden poet Iain Galbraith translates poems by John Burnside. Wiesbadener Kurier , December 23, 2016, by Volker Milch. About Galbraith as the translator of Kinsky and she as the translator of his poems

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Esther Kinsky on munzinger.de , accessed on April 4, 2019
2. ↑ Esther Kinsky is appointed as the sixth Thomas Kling poetics lecturer. Germanistic Seminar, Bonn, accessed on October 7, 2016
3. ^ Esther Kinsky becomes August Wilhelm von Schlegel visiting professor for poetics of translation at the Free University of Berlin. Press release from the Free University of Berlin, Berlin, accessed on October 17, 2018
4. ↑ "Comfortable Landscapes", Hain by Esther Kinsky presented by Andrea Gerk , ndr.de on March 1, 2018
5. ↑ Katharina Teutsch: Nature Writing: To write about nature means to write about people. Deutschlandfunk, January 28, 2018, accessed on January 28, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Hildesheim Poetics Lecture ›Literaturhaus St. Jakobi Hildesheim. Retrieved June 13, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Nobel Prize for Literature for Olga Tokarczuk - Prize-worthy or uninteresting? Retrieved December 13, 2019 (German). 
8. ↑ Susanne Burg: "Artists in language" - the author Esther Kinsky on translation , at: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , August 13, 2013
9. ↑ Work and research grants awarded to 29 Berlin authors , report on Buchmarkt.de from November 26, 2019, accessed on November 30, 2019.
10. ↑ German author Esther Kinsky receives the Erich Fried Prize this year. June 9, 2020, accessed June 9, 2020 . 
11. ↑ W.-G.-Sebald Literature Prize goes to the author Esther Kinsky , buchmarkt.de, published and accessed on July 22, 2020.
12. ↑ German Prize for Nature Writing , Börsenblatt dated August 17, 2020, accessed August 17, 2020
13. ^ First a series of events in the bookstore buch / bund, Berlin-Neukölln . Moderation of the EK readings Selected poems were presented in two languages ​​and are printed here, as well as discussions with the poets.