The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018 - 20

FEATURE

BY LOIS FEUERLE
been published in English by leading
U.S. publishers.
In June of 2017, Jessica and David
Grossman won the Man Booker
International Prize for the year's besttranslated work of a fiction novel.
Grossman and Cohen shared the
£50,000 prize, which was awarded to
Cohen's English translation of A Horse
Walks into a Bar, Grossman's novel about
a standup comedian's public breakdown.
This was only the second year the Man
Booker International Prize was awarded
to a single book. (The 2016 prize was
awarded to South Korean novelist Han
Kang and translator Deborah Smith for
The Vegetarian.)
Jessica was kind enough to allow
me the opportunity to speak with
her about working with David
Grossman, her thoughts on the process
of literary translation, as well as some
upcoming projects.

Translator Jessica Cohen and author David Grossman, recipients of the 2017 Man Booker International
Prize. (Photo courtesy of the Man Booker International Prize)

A Conversation with Man
Booker International Prize
Winner Jessica Cohen
Jessica Cohen, winner of the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, shares
her thoughts on literary translation, including what it's like to collaborate
with one of Israel's finest writers.

essica Cohen, a freelance
English<>Hebrew literary
translator born in England
and raised in Israel, has come a long
way since winning ATA's Student
Translation Award in 2000. Jessica
started her freelance career in 1998.
Her first book-length translation was
published in 2003, and over the years
she devoted more and more time to
literary translation while maintaining a
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The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2018

commercial translation business.
Since 2012, she has focused
exclusively on literary and creative
translation. She has worked with
some of Israel's finest writers, including
Assaf Gavron, David Grossman,
Amir Gutfreund, Yael Hedaya, Etgar
Keret, Ronit Matalon, Rutu Modan,
and Tom Segev, as well as prominent
screenwriters such as Ari Folman and
Ron Leshem. Her translations have

You and ATA go back quite some time
together. I remember when you won
ATA's Student Translation Award in 2000.
I was one of the readers for the award
that year and was so blown away by the
quality of your translation that I still
remember the title of the book from which
your translation was taken, Milk Teeth by
Yehonatan Geffen.
I was working on my certificate in
literary translation as part of my
master's degree at Indiana University
at that time. Breon Mitchell, a
charter member and past president
of the American Literary Translators
Association, was the chair of the
Comparative Literature Department
and my husband's dissertation advisor.
It was through a chat with him that I
decided to enroll in the MA program in
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
At that point, Indiana's Certificate in
Literary Translation Program had all
but faded away, but it was under
Breon that it was resuscitated. He
put together a combination of classes
for me, including some from other
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018