Waltraud Hüsmert wins Nijhoff Award 2004

The translator Waltraud Hüsmert has won the Martinus Nijhoff Award for 2004. The jury praised the creativity and accuracy of her translations: ‘Waltraud Hüsmert not only displays her versatility in the genres that she covers and in the origins of her writers, but also demonstrates her impressive capability to convey, in German, the distinctive tone of each of her authors. Whether one reads her version of poems by Claus or a novel by Tessa de Loo, literature by the younger or older Hermans: a consistently remarkable feature is the fidelity to the personality of the writer.’

Hüsmert (Werdohl, 1951) studied Art History, Dutch Language and Literature, and German Language and Literature at the Vrije Universiteit in Berlin, and Dutch and German Studies at the University of Leiden. She has been working as a freelance translator since 1980, and has translated authors such as Willem Elsschot, Hugo Claus, Maarten ‘t Hart, Mensje van Keulen, Tessa de Loo, Thomas Rosenboom, and Willem Frederik Hermans. In 2001, she received the Flemish Cultural Award for Translation and, in conjunction with Hugo Claus and fellow translator Maria Csollány, the Award for European Poetry of the City of Munster. Hüsmert’s translations of Hermans – Die Dunkelkammer des Damocles (The Dark Room of Damocles), Au Pair, and Nie mehr schlafen (Never Again to Sleep), published by Kiepenheuer, have ensured that Hermans is regarded in Germany as being one of the most important Dutch twentieth-century authors. A complete overview of her translations can be found at here.
The Martinus Nijhoff Award is the most important Dutch prize for translators and has been awarded by the Prince Bernhard Fund for Culture on an annual basis since 1955. Once every three years, the Award is bestowed on a translator who translates from Dutch into a foreign language. The Hungarian translator Judit Gera won the prize in 2001.
More info: www.cultuurfonds.nl/index.cfm?PageID=612&SitePath=

Published: August 16, 2004 award