Workshop Leaders

Workshop Leader German-Polish

Sława Lisiecka

Sława Lisiecka (born 1947) completed her degree in German Language and Literature in 1970 in Lodz. For several years she was a lecturer and docent at the university in Lodz. Since 1978 she is a freelance translator of German-language literature. Until now she has translated approximately 90 books into Polish, amongst others from P. Härtling, T. Bernhard, G. de Bruyn, S. Heym, S. Lenz, S. Nadolny, Ch. Ransmayr, A. Muschg, H. Hesse, J. Zeh, B. Vanderbeke, G.-A. Goldschmidt, K.-M. Gauß, G. Benn, U. Johnson, P. Henisch, G. Jonke. She also translates plays (amongst others by Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek, Georg Tabori, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Moritz Rinke, Juli Zeh) and poetry (amongs others by Ingeborg Bachmann, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Günter Grass, Christine Koschel, Tina Stroheker, Gottfried Benn, Thomas Bernhard).

In addition she has published in many Polish literary journals fragments of works by Peter Handke, Elias Canetti, Ödön von Horváth, Ludwig Harig, Franz Hessel, Franzobel and others. For many years now she has translated philosophical, psychological, literature critical and sociological works (amongst others by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Victor Chu, Martin Heidegger, Hans Mayer) and also numerous translations in art catalogues.

She has been awarded a stipend by the German Literature Fund, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Perewest Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the European Translator Centre and the Austrian Assosiation for Literature. In 1985 she received the translator price from the Robert Bosch Foundation and the German Poland Institute, in 2007 the Austrian National Prize for literary translators of Austrian literature – Translatio, in 2009 the prize of the Polish monthly Literatura na świecie [Literature in the World] for the translation of the novel Mutmaßungen über Jakob [Speculations about Jakob] by Uwe Johnson. On May 8 in 2012 she was awared the prize of the NRW Foundation at the European Translator Centre in Straelen/Germany for her lifetime achievement with a special consideration of her translation of Thomas Bernhard’s works. Currently she works on the translation of: Kunst und Künstler [Art and Artist] by Otto Rank and Menschliches, Allzumenschliches [Human, All Too Human] by Friedrich Nietzsche.

She is married to Zdzisław Jaskuła with whom she translated amongst others Also sprach Zarathustra [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] by Friedrich Nietzsche, a large selection of poems by Ingeborg Bachmann entitled Erklär mir, Liebe [Explain to Me, Love] and the selection of poems ‘Nie einsamer’ und andere Gedichte [Never More Lonely and Other Poems] by Gottfried Benn. Currently both have been working on the translation of about 80 selected poems by Thomas Bernhard.

In 2007 she received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland for her outstanding achievements for the independence of Poland (1975-1989), for cultural and oppositional activities in support of democratic transformations and for her current professional activities.

In 2011 she was awarded the prize of the city of Lodz for her achievements.

Workshop Leader Polish-German

Dr. Olaf Kühl

is translator, author and a political consultant. He lives in Berlin.

Born in 1955 in Wilhelmshaven, he studied Slavic Languages and Literature at Free University in Berlin. In 1995 he earned his doctorate degree with a thesis on the prose of Witold Gombrowicz. In 2005 he received the Karl Dedecius Prize for his lifetime achievements, in the same year he received the German prize for youth literature for his translation of Dorota Masłowska’s Snow White and Russian Red. With a Border Crosser research grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation he conducted research in 2008 in Siberia and wrote the novel Tote Tiere [Dead Animals] (Rowohlt Berlin, 2011). In winter semester 2011/2012 he was appointed August Wilhelm von Schlegel Visiting Professor for Poetics of Translation at Free University of Berlin.