Bill Johnston

Email:

billj@iu.edu

Department:

Comparative Literature

Campus:

IU Bloomington

Bill Johnston is a translator of Polish literature. He has published over thirty book-length translations from a wide range of genres and historical periods. His translations include classics by Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, and Jan Kochanowski; nineteenth and twentieth century fiction by Witold Gombrowicz,Stefan Żeromski, and Bolesław Prus; the poetry of Julia Fiedorczuk, Tomasz Różycki, and Tadeusz Różewicz; and contemporary writing by Magdalena Tulli, Wiesław Myśliwski, Andrzej Stasiuk, Jerzy Pilch, and Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki.

Johnston is also active as a teacher. He offers graduate courses in literary translation at IU Bloomington, as part of the Department of Comparative Literature’s Certificate in Literary Translation. He has also taught at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA, and at the Bread Loaf Translators Conference in Middlebury, VT, as well as offering numerous mentorships through the American Literary Translators Association.

Publications & Projects

Ongoing: Nights and Days Parts I and II, by Maria Dąbrowska. Project supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Translation Fellowship 2020 – 2022.

Adam Mickiewicz: Pan Tadeusz (Archipelago Books, 2018)

Julia Fiedorczuk: Oxygen (Zephyr Press, 2017)

Tomasz Różycki: Twelve Stations (Zephyr Press, 2015)

Stanisław Lem: Solaris (Audible, 2011)

Wiesław Myśliwski: Stone Upon Stone (Archipelago Books, 2010)

Accomplishments

2019: National Translation Award in Poetry for Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz

2016: Found in Translation Award for Twelve Stations, by Tomasz Różycki

2014: Transatlantyk Prize for the promotion of Polish literature abroad

2013 - 2014: Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

2012: Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit, awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland.

2012: PEN Translation Prize for Wiesław Myśliwski’s Stone Upon Stone 

2012: Best Translated Book Award (Fiction) for Wiesław Myśliwski’s Stone Upon Stone