Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize

The Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is an annual literary prize named for the German–American publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff "honoring an outstanding literary translation from German into English", published in the United States of America the previous year. The translator of the winning translation receives $10,000.^[1]

The prize was established in 1996 and is funded by the German Federal Office. It was managed by the Goethe-Institut Chicago until 2014. Since 2015, the prize has been administered by the Goethe-Institut in New York.^[2]

Awardees

Year	Translator	Author	Title	Ref.
1996	John E. Woods	Thomas Mann	The Magic Mountain
		Arno Schmidt	Nobodaddy's Children
1997	Leila Vennewitz	Jurek Becker	Jacob the Liar
1998	John Brownjohn	Thomas Brussig	Heroes Like Us
1999	Joel Agee	Heinrich von Kleist	Penthesilea	[3]
2000	Michael Hofmann	Joseph Roth	Rebellion
2001	Krishna Winston	Günter Grass	Too Far Afield
2002	Anthea Bell	W. G. Sebald	Austerlitz
2003	Margot Bettauer Dembo	Judith Hermann	Summerhouse, Later
2004	Breon Mitchell	Uwe Timm	Morenga
2005	Michael Henry Heim	Thomas Mann	Death in Venice
2006	Susan Bernofsky	Jenny Erpenbeck	The Old Child & Other Stories
2007	Peter Constantine	Benjamin Lebert	The Bird is a Raven
2008	David Dollenmayer	Moses Rosenkranz	Childhood. An Autobiographical Fragment
2009	John Hargraves	Michael Krüger	The Executor – A Comedy of Letters
2010	Ross Benjamin	Michael Maar	Speak, Nabokov
2011	Jean M. Snook	Gert Jonke	The Distant Sound	[4][5]
2012	Burton Pike	Gerhard Meier	Isle of the Dead	[6]
2013	Philip Boehm	Gregor von Rezzori	An Ermine in Czernopol
2014	Shelley Frisch	Reiner Stach	Kafka: The Years of Insight
2015	Catherine Schelbert	Hugo Ball	Flametti, or The Dandyism of the Poor	[7][8]
2016	Daniel Bowles	Christian Kracht	Imperium	[9]
2017	Charlotte Collins	Robert Seethaler	A Whole Life
2018	Isabel Fargo Cole	Wolfgang Hilbig	Old Rendering Plant	[10]
2019	Damion Searls	Uwe Johnson	Anniversaries. From the Life of Gesine Cresspahl	[11][12]
2020	Philip Boehm	Christine Wunnicke	The Fox and Dr. Shimamura	[13]
2021	Jackie Smith	Judith Schalansky	An Inventory of Losses	[14][15][16]
2022	Vincent Kling	Heimito von Doderer	The Strudlhof Steps	[17][18]
2024	Jon Cho-Polizzi	Max Czollek	De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century	[19][20]