Der neue Bereich unseres Portals macht es sich zum Anliegen, die internationalen Literaturszenen Berlins zu kartographieren, die handelnden Personen und ihre Schauplätze sichtbar und zugänglich zu machen. 
Die Entstehung der Rubrik wurde durch eine Förderung des Hauptstadtkulturfonds ermöglicht. 

Isabel Fargo Cole

Translator

Facilitator

© © Graham Hains

Profile

Born: 6.5.1973
Birthplace: Galena, Illinois
Country of birth: USA
Lives in: Berlin, Pankow


Source language: German
Target language: English

Vita

 Isabel Fargo Cole grew up in New York City and studied at the University of Chicago; since 1995 she has lived and worked in Berlin as a freelance writer and translator (e.g. Alexander Kluge, Wolfgang Hilbig, Franz Führmann, Klaus Hoffer und Annemarie Schwarzenbach.) She was co-editor of the magazine „lauter niemand“ and co-organizer of the „Literaturlabor“ in the years 2006-2008, she also initiated and co-edited www.no-mans-land.org, which takes the form of an online magazine for new German literature in English translation. Together with Juli Zeh and Ilija Trojanow she started the Initiative „Writers Against Mass Surveillance“. Her first novel, „Die grüne Grenze. Ein Märchen“ (“The green border. A fairy tale”) will be published by Nautilus Edition in 2017.

6 Questions

What brought you to Berlin? Love? World politics? Or was it a coincidence?

It was in 1987 when I first came to Berlin (on a school-trip in the course of a student-exchange-programme in Bielefeld) and I already was completely smitten with the city.


What do you love about Berlin?

All the still-broken, the gloomy, the green, the living, the serenity, the struggle with history.


What do you miss in Berlin?

Mountains and deserts


What is your favorite spot in Berlin?

The „Bürgerpark“.


Would you say you are a different person in Berlin? A different translator? And if yes, in what way?

I’m older and wiser than I was before, back home.


Which existing literary work do you wish you had written?

"A Room of One's Own" (Virginia Woolf)

Awards

 2003  Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, Summer Academy for translators. 
2004  Fellowship by the foundation Stiftung Kulturfonds at Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop. 
2006  Participaticon in translators‘ conference, „Wolfenbüttler Übersetzergespräche“  
2007  „Internationales Übersetzertreffen“, International Meeting of Translators, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin  
2012  Fellowship from the Kunststiftung NRW at the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium Straelen (Translation project: Wolfgang Hilbig, "I"). 
2013  PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award for the translation of Franz Fühmann’s At the Burning Abyss (Vor Feuerschlünden). 2013  Shortlist, Typographical Translation Award (Franz Fühmann, The Jew Car) 
2014  Shortlist, Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (Franz Fühmann, The Jew Car) 
2015  Fellowship from the Austrian Society for Literature, Vienna (translation project: Klaus Hoffer, Among the Bieresch) 
2016  Longlist, Best Translated Book Award (Wolfgang Hilbig, The Sleep of the Righteous) 
2016  Residency by the Austrian Society for Literature, Vienna (translation project: Adalbert Stifter, Bunte Steine)

Work

Translated publications

"Among the Bieresch", Klaus Hoffer

Seagull Books, Kalkutta/London, 2016 Novel

„I“, Wolfgang Hilbig

Seagull Books, Kalkutta/London, 2015 Novel

"The Jew Car", Franz Fühmann

Seagull Books, Kalkutta/London, 2013 Narrative

"Boys and Murderers", Hermann Ungar

Twisted Spoon Press, Prag, 2006 Narrative

"The Sleep of the Righteous", Wolfgang Hilbig

Two Lines Press, San Francisco, 2015 Narrative

"Selected Essays", Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Seagull Books, Kalkutta/London, 2013 Essay

"All the Roads Are Open" von Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Seagull Books, Kalkutta/London, 2011 Essay