- Email:
- billj@iu.edu
- Department:
- Comparative Literature
- Campus:
- IU Bloomington
Ballantine Hall 629
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.
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)
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
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