Here’s the winner of the 2024 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize.
Today, the Goethe-Institut announced the winner of this year’s Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, which every year celebrates “an outstanding literary translation” from German to English. The 2024 recipient is Jon Cho-Polizzi, translator of Max Czollek’s De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century, published in English by Restless Books.
“Cho-Polizzi’s crackling, punchy language brilliantly takes up the challenge of the book’s many shifts in register (theoretical, academic, critical, colloquial), tone (sardonic and humorous to reflective and personal), and form (poetry, rap lyrics, newspaper/journal articles, speeches, statements),” the prize jury said in a statement. “His buoyant prose, which manages to read both effortlessly and invitingly, captures the flavor of the original as it conveys issues of urgent current interest. 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.”
The award will be presented at a prize ceremony on October 1. Cho-Polizzi will receive $5,000 as well as a fully funded trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair.
