March 22, 2023
Ross Benjamin is an award-winning translator of German-language literature.
Dating from 1909 to 1923, Kafka's handwritten diaries contain a colorful mix of writing: accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, descriptions of dreams, and even finished stories. This volume, available for the first time in English, features the unedited notes, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications. By faithfully reproducing the diaries' distinctive -- and often surprisingly unpolished -- writing, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the author's use of the notebooks for literary experimentation and private self-expression, but also their value as a work of art in themselves.
Ross Benjamin's translations include both classic and contemporary German literature. He was awarded the 2010 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar's Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim fellowship for his work on Franz Kafka's diaries.
Further information
- Location: Stern Great Room
- Time: 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
- Cost: Free