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PEN Literary Awards nominates two WW Fellows
Two WW Fellows—Renata Adler and Benjamin Paloff—are among the illustrious authors and translators nominated for the 2016 PEN Literary Awards.
Renata Adler, a 1959 Woodrow Wilson Fellow, is on the short list in the Art of the Essay category for her collection of non-fiction, After the Tall Timber. Spanning nearly forty years, the collection houses work from Ms. Adler’s career as a journalist and critic, writing for publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times.
New Republic said of the work: “Adler’s prose is exacting and full of surprises. Her reportage is rich and unfussy. The collection could stand on the basis of her intellect alone—and, in that regard, its velocity does not dip.”
Dr. Adler earned a B.A. in philosophy and German from Bryn Mawr, an M.A. in comparative literature from Harvard, a D.d’E.S. from the Sorbonne, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an honorary LL.D. from Georgetown. Also a writer of fiction, she won first prize in the O. Henry Awards for her 1974 short story “Brownstone,” and her first novel, Speedboat, won the 1974 Hemingway Foundation/PAN Award for a distinguished achievement in debut fiction. Speedboat was republished in 2013.
On the longlist for the PEN Translation prize is 2001 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Benjamin Paloff, nominated for his translation from Czech of The Game for Real by Richard Weiner.
Weiner is regarded as one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. His work was suppressed during the Communist period, only gaining recognition after 1989. First published 80 years ago, The Game for Real—with its “farcical humor, bizarre twists, and acute psychology”—is available to English readers for the first time in Dr. Paloff’s translation (Two Lines Press). Dr. Paloff received a 2014 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for work on his translation.
Dr. Paloff is an assistant professor of comparative literature and of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Michigan and a poetry editor at Boston Review. He earned a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Harvard and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Michigan. He has published several translations from Polish as well as a collection of poetry called The Politics.
Winners of the 2016 PEN Literary Awards will be announced at the award ceremony on April 11, 2016.
