Karen Leeder (born 1962)[1] is a British writer, translator and scholar of German culture.[2] She is professor of Modern German Literature in the University of Oxford.[3] In 2021 she was elected as Schwarz-Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature,[4] a position she took up at The Queen's College, Oxford in 2022.

Early life and education

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Born in Derbyshire, she lived in Rugby and attended Rugby High School and Rugby School. She studied German at Magdalen College, Oxford and the University of Hamburg.

Career

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She taught at Emmanuel College, Cambridge for three years as Official Fellow in German, from 1990 before taking up a post as a Fellow[5] at New College, Oxford in 1993. Her interests include post-war German literature, the literature of the GDR, German poetry in translation, Brecht, Rilke, spectres and angels.

From 1993 to 2022 she was Fellow in German at New College Oxford.[citation needed] In 2021 she was elected as Schwarz-Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature,[4] a position she took up at The Queen's College, Oxford in 2022. She is professor of Modern German Literature in the University of Oxford.[3] In 2023 she embarks on a three-year Einstein fellowship at the Free University of Berlin on the project AfterWords.[6]

In 2017 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,[7] and in 2020 she was elected to the Academia Europaea.[8]

She is a translator, and she has won prizes for her translations of Volker Braun, Evelyn Schlag, Durs Grünbein and Ulrike Almut Sandig.[9][citation needed] She has published widely on German culture, including several volumes on Rilke and Brecht. With Christopher Young and Michael Eskin, she was commissioning editor for the de Gruyter series of Companions to Contemporary German Culture (2012–2022).

Publications

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  • Breaking Boundaries: A New Generation of Poets in the GDR (OUP, 1996).
  • With Tom Kuhn, The Young Brecht (London: Libris, 1992, paperback 1996)
  • Editor, with Tom Kuhn, Empedocles’ Shoe: Essays on Brecht's poetry (London: Methuen, 2002)
  • Editor, with Erdmut Wizisla, O Chicago! O Widerspruch!: Ein Hundert Gedichte auf Brecht (Berlin: Transit, 2006)
  • Editor, Schaltstelle: Neue deutsche Lyrik im Dialog, German Monitor 69 (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2007)
  • Editor, Flaschenpost: German Poetry and the Long Twentieth Century, Special Edition of German Life and Letters (GLL, LX, No. 3, 2007)
  • Editor, From Stasiland to Ostalgie. The GDR Twenty Years After, A special edition of Oxford German Studies, OGS, 38.3 (Oxford, 2009)
  • Editor, with Robert Vilain, The Cambridge Companion to Rilke (Cambridge: CUP, 2009)
  • Editor, with Robert Vilain, Nach Duino: Studien zu Rainer Maria Rilkes späten Gedichten (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2009)
  • Editor, with Laura Bradley, Brecht & the GDR: Politics, Culture, Posterity, Edinburgh German Yearbook, vol. 5 (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2011)
  • Editor, with Michael Eskin and Christopher Young, Durs Grünbein: A Companion (Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 2013)
  • Editor, Figuring Lateness in Modern German Culture, special edition of New German Critique, 42.1, 125, (2015)
  • Editor, Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR (Cambridge: CUP, 2016, paperback 2019)
  • Editor, with Lyn Marven, Ulrike Draesner: A Companion (Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 2022)

Translations

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Prizes

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  • 2000 Literarisches Colloquium Berlin summer school scholarship[citation needed]
  • 2002 One month Writer in Residence LCB[citation needed]
  • 2005 Winner of Schlegel Tieck Prize for Evelyn Schlag Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2004)[citation needed]
  • 2013 Winner of Times Stephen Spender Prize for Durs Grünbein, 'Childhood in the Diorama'[11]
  • 2014 Deutsche Übersetzerfonds/Goethe Institut: 'ViceVersa: Deutsch-Englische Übersetzerwerkstatt im LCB', 2014, Berlin (Ulrike Almut Sandig)[12]
  • 2014 Robert Bosch Stiftung/Goethe Institut: 'Frühling der Barbaren. Deutschsprachige Literatur aktuell' 2014 (Berlin, Leipzig)[citation needed]
  • 2014–15 Knowledge Exchange Fellow,[13] University of Oxford/Southbank Centre, London
  • 2015 Translation of High on Low (Upper West Side philosophers' Inc., 2014) Winner of Independent Publisher Book Award for Self Help (2015), Named Finalist for a Next Generation Indie Book Award for Self Help (2015); Gold Medal and Winner of Living Now Book Award for Personal Growth (2015)[14]
  • 2016 English PEN, EUNIC, European Literature Festival, New European Literature Translation pitch overall winner for translations of Ulrike Almut Sandig Thick of it (2016)[15]
  • 2016 American PEN PEN/Heim Translation award for Ulrike Almut Sandig, Thick of it[16]
  • 2017 The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize for Translation for Durs Grünbein, 'The Doctrine of Photography' Poetry, 2018[17]
  • 2021 Winner of Schlegel-Tieck Prize for Durs Grünbein, Porcelain: Poem on the Downfall of my City, trans. by Leeder (Seagull, 2021).[18]

References

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  1. ^ "Karen Leeder". newdivan.org.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Karen Leeder | Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages". www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
  3. ^ a b "Karen Leeder | New College". www.new.ox.ac.uk.
  4. ^ a b "Professor Leeder elected as the next Schwarz Taylor Chair of German".
  5. ^ "Governing Body | New College". University of Oxford. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  6. ^ "AfterWords". Frei Universität Berlin.
  7. ^ "Professor Karen Leeder elected RSA Fellow". Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  8. ^ "Academy of Europe: Leeder Karen".
  9. ^ a b "Ulrike Almut Sandig | Autorin". Ulrike Almut Sandig.
  10. ^ "2024 Literary Award Longlist Announced". Dublin City Council. 16 January 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2024..
  11. ^ "Stephen Spender Trust".
  12. ^ "Uebersetzerwerkstatt LCB".
  13. ^ "TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellows".
  14. ^ "Upper Westside Philosophers".
  15. ^ "English PEN".
  16. ^ "American PEN". 26 July 2016.
  17. ^ "Poetry Magazine Prizes". 10 January 2024.
  18. ^ "German – Schlegel-Tieck Prize - the Society of Authors". 8 May 2020.
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