The University of Illinois in Chicago is the venue for today’s annual awards for the best translation of Polish literature into the English language.
The recipient of the ‘Found in Translation’ Award for 2009 is Danuta Borchardt, whose translation of Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), published by Grove Atlantic in the United States, has been hailed as a high-calibre achievement.
Borchardt also has Gombrowicz’s two other novels to her credit, Cosmos and Ferdydurke. Her translation of Ferdydurke received the National Translation Award in the United States in 2001.
The ‘Found in Translation’ Award was established three years ago by the Polish Cultural Institutes in London and New York, the Krakow-based Polish Book Institute and W.A.B. Publishers of Warsaw.
In previous years the award went to Bill Johnston for the translation of Różewicz’s poetry and to Antonia Lloyd-Jones for the translation of Paweł Huelle’s The Last Supper.
The award-presentation ceremony coincides with the inauguration of The Hejna Family Chair in Polish Language and Literature at the University of Illinois.
Its Head is Professor Michał Paweł Markowski of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, a leading specialist in 20th-century literature. He has worked as visiting professor at Harvard University, the Northwestern University in Evanston and the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. (mk)