Word for Word Exchange: German

Students in Germany

Columbia University School of the Arts & Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig, 2011-2012

In 2011, Columbia University School of the Arts launched the Word for Word exchange program welcoming students from the University of Leipzig’s Creative Writing Program (Deutsches Literaturinstituit Leipzig, DLL) in a cross-cultural exchange in literary translation. Three students from the School of the Arts Graduate Writing Program were paired with three German students to translate each other’s work. Their collaboration culminated in the publication of the book Word for Word / Wort für Wort, a bilingual collection of their reciprocal translations of poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction.
 
In October 2011, the Columbia University students traveled to Leipzig to meet their translation partners. In March 2012, all six German and American writers met again at the Leipzig Book Fair, accompanied by Professor and former Program Chair Binnie Kirshenbaum and Director of Academic Administration William Wadsworth. On April 12, 2012, all six emerging German and American writers were reunited at Columbia University’s Deutsches Haus in New York City for a reading & celebration of their work.

Columbia University School of the Arts Participants:

ARIELL CACCIOLA is a writer and translator based in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Brooklyn RailWords Without Borders and Publishers Weekly. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University and is finishing her first novel.

JOSHUA DANIEL EDWIN’s poetry and translations appear in a variety of publications in print and online. His translations of Dagmara Kraus’ poetry were awarded a 2012 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and were published in a chapbook by Argos Books. He lives in Brooklyn and is a member of the editorial board for the magazine Circumference: Poetry in Translation.
 
KATHERINE SANDERS is a writer and translator based in New York City. She received her BA in English at Brigham Young University and her MFA at Columbia University in creative nonfiction and literary translation from French and German. She taught literary translation in Columbia University's Undergraduate Creative Writing Program. She is also a member of Harlem Writers' Circle and the founding editor of a small literary magazine, Crescendo City. Her work has appeared in Bomb and Words Without Borders.

DLL Participants:

JÖRN DEGE was born in 1982. After receiving his degree in mathematics and philosophy from Humboldt-Universität Berlin in 2008, he joined the Creative Writing Program in Leipzig. In 2010 he received a scholarship from the Klagenfurter Literaturkurs for short prose. He works for the Berlin-based weekly newspaper der Freitag, is an editor of the well-known literary magazine Edit and teaches creative writing. He is currently serving as Academic Director of the DLL.
 
DAGMARA KRAUS was born in Poland in 1981 and studied comparative literature, art history, and creative writing. She writes poetry and translates from Polish. She has published two books of original poetry in German: kummerang (Berlin, kookbooks 2012) and kleine grammaturgie (Solothurn, Urs Engeler/rough books 2013), as well as two book-length collections of translations from the work of the Polish poet Miron Bialoszewski: Wir Seesterne (Leipzig, Reinecke & Voß) and Das geheime Tagebuch (Berlin, Edition Fototapeta).

BETTINA SULEIMAN received her degree in German Studies and a doctorate in Philosophy. In 2010, she was awarded the Prix d'Encouragement of Forum Femmes Méditerranée. She holds an MFA in creative writing, an MA in German studies, and a PhD in philosophy. Her debut novel, Auswilderung, was published in 2014 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin.

Institutional Partners:

The DEUTSCHES LITERATURINSTITUT LEIPZIG is a central institution at the Universität Leipzig, providing the only degree course for writers in the making in Germany since 1995. Alongside the three-year BA in Creative Writing, focusing on poetry, prose, and drama, an MA in Creative Writing has also been offered since winter of 2009. This is a two-year degree designed as a novel workshop. The aim of the program is to provide students with highly professional writing skills and creative competence, along with a knowledge of literary history and theory.

Columbia University and the DLL gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the U.S. CONSULATE GENERAL LEIPZIG for the workshops held in Leipzig in October 2011, as well as additional support from the GOETHE-INSTITUT NEW YORK for the publication of Word for Word/Wort für Wort.

Read more about the exchange and events on Words Without Borders.

Read Josh Edwin’s essay on the process of translating Dagmara Kraus on Drunken Boat.