Prize for Der Meister und Margarita

September 7, 2014

Yesterday, September 6, 2014, at the beautiful Pashkov House in Moscow, the winners were announced of Читая Россию (Chitaya Rossiyu) or Read Russia Prize. This prize is awarded for the best translations in foreign languages ​​from Russian.

The Read Russia Prize was founded in 2011 by the Institute of Translation in Moscow. This year there were 112 entries from 16 different countries. The winners receive 5000 euros, the publishers of the laureates receive 3000 euro.

In the category Literature of the twentieth century, this year's prize was won by Alexander Nitzberg for his German translation of The Master and Margarita.

Alexander Nitzberg, born on September 29, 1969 in Moscow, comes from a family of Russian artists: his mother Ella Opalnaya was an actress, his father Abram Nitzberg a painter and sculptor, and his older sister Julia Nitzberg is a visual artist. He moved to Germany in 1980, where he first visited the Goethe Gymnasium in Dortmund and also learned to play piano and viola. Later he studied German literature and philosophy at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf

Since 1996, Nitzberg is collecting one literary award after the other, both for his own works and for his translations. He's got especially acclaimed for his translations of Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Mayakovsky. His last two translations are works by Mikhail Bulgakov: Der Meister und Margarita (The Master and Margarita) from 2012, and Das hündische Herz (Heart of a Dog) from 2013

Today Nitzberg lives in Vienna, Austria, and is active as a freelance writer, translator, journalist, librettist and reciter.


Patriarch's Ponds   Patriarch's Ponds

Der Meister und Margarita (l.), translated by Alexander Nitzberg (r.)

 

Share this page |