Several months ago we announced the Yiddish Book Center’s Translation Prize, an award of $2,500 for an outstanding new translation.  Applicants were invited to submit a new translation of Yiddish prose literature, fiction or non-fiction, completed or published within the last two years. After receiving over two dozen entries of the highest caliber, the Yiddish Book Center is thrilled to announce that the winners of the 2012 Translation Prize are Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub for their superb collection of works by American Yiddish writer Blume Lempel, entitled “Oedipus in Brooklyn” and Other Stories.  

Blume Lempel (1907-1999) was a bold writer, known for her daring stylistic and thematic choices. Cassedy, an established author and translator, and Taub, a bilingual poet and librarian, have captured Lempel’s unique voice and made it available to the English reader.  A story from their collection will be featured in an upcoming issue of Pakn Treger.

The Prize Committee would also like to acknowledge Dr. Heather Valencia, Research Fellow at the University of Stirling, Scotland, as an Honorable Mention for her translation of Esther Kreitman’s Brilyantn, published in English in 2009 as Diamonds. The sister of famous Yiddish literati Isaac Bashevis Singer and I.J. Singer, Kreitman has only in recent years begun to receive the attention that was previously reserved for her brothers, in part thanks to this and other translations.