The Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize honours an outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the USA/Canada the previous year.

Established in 1996 and newly funded by the Friends of Goethe New York, the prizewinning translator is awarded $5,000 and a fully funded trip to the Frankfurter Buchmesse.

The 2024 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize winner is Jon Cho-Polizzi, an Assistant Professor of German at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His winning translation of Max Czollek’s De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century, published by Restless Books in 2023, ‘captures the flavor of the original as it conveys issues of urgent current interest and marvelously introduces English-speaking readers to a fresh and powerful voice with a vital message’.

Read about how to be an eloquent writer.

His sparkling presentation extends even to the translator footnotes. Max Czollek’s book, in Jon Cho-Polizzi’s resplendent translation, is sure to linger in readers’ minds for a long time to come.

Shortlisted Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize Winner include;

1. Jon Cho-Polizzi
   For his translation of Max Czollek’s Desintegriert euch!
   De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century
   (Restless Books, 2023)
2. Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson
   For their translation of Thomas Brussig’s Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee
   The Short End of the Sonnenallee
   (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023)

3. Tess Lewis
   For her translation of Ernst Jünger’s Auf den Marmorklippen
   On the Marble Cliffs
   (New York Review Books, 2023)

4. Greg Nissan
   For their translation of Yevgenia Belorusets’ Anfang des Krieges. Tagebücher aus Kyjiw
   War Diary
   (New Directions, 2023)

5. Simon Pare
   For his translation of Florian Illies’ Liebe in Zeiten des Hasses
   Love in a Time of Hate
   (Riverhead Books, 2023)

6. Peter Wortsman
   For his translation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der goldne Topf
   The Golden Pot and Other Tales of the Uncanny
   (Archipelago Books, 2023)

The Jury of the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize 2024 are:

• Shelley Frisch (Chair)
• Elisabeth Lauffer
• Philip Boehm

Learn about the benefits of translating a book in this article.