Longtime readers of our blog may remember that last year, J.M.G. Le Clézio, who has published two translation titles with the University of Nebraska Press, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A year later, it's happened again. Herta Müller, a German writer, is this year's winner, and the University of Nebraska Press published the translation of her first book in 1999. Following is the full press release:
LINCOLN, Neb. (Oct. 8, 2009) – German writer Herta Müller, whose short story collection Nadirs was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1999, is the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature.
Müller was born in 1953 in the Banat, a German-language region of Romania, and the stories of Nadirs are based on her experiences growing up there. Nadirs, Müller’s first published work, was originally published in Romania under the title Niederungen in a censored format. The complete manuscript was smuggled to Germany in 1984 and published in full. Müller herself immigrated to West Berlin in 1987. She has received numerous literary awards, including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Nadirs, which was published as part of the University of Nebraska Press’s European Women Writers series, is one of just five of Müller’s books available in English. The stories in Nadirs, told from the standpoint of a young girl, weave together a bleak picture of Banat, where violence and poverty are rampant, and the vivid dreams of the narrator. The judges praised this unique writing style, saying “with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, (Müller) depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.”
Müller is the second University of Nebraska Press author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in as many years. Last year’s winner, J.M.G. Le Clézio, has published a short story collection, The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts, and a novel, Onitsha, with the University of Nebraska Press. Another of Le Clézio’s short story collections, Mondo and Other Stories, is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press.
Müller will receive her prize at a Dec. 10 ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
About the University of Nebraska Press: Founded in 1941, the University of Nebraska Press (UNP) is a nonprofit scholarly and general interest press that publishes 160 new and reprint titles annually under the Nebraska and Bison Books imprints, respectively, along with 20 journals. As the largest and most diversified university press between Chicago and California, with nearly 3,000 books in print, the University of Nebraska Press is best known for publishing works in Indigenous studies, history and literature of the American West, literary translation, and sports history. UNP has also had a long-standing dedication to making available the best literature from around the world. With nearly 200 translated titles currently in print from five different languages, including two titles by J.M.G. Le Clézio, the 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and one title by the 2009 winner, Herta Müller, the number and breadth of translated titles has distinguished UNP as one of the largest, most active American publishers of translated work. UNP’s translations and other titles have won numerous awards, and the press as a whole was named ForeWord Magazine’s Independent Press of the Year for 2008.
A distinctive member of the University of Nebraska community, UNP supports the missions of research, teaching, and service. In addition, UNP's sustained commitment to publications on the peoples, culture, and heritage of Nebraska reflects decades of service to its home state. Learn more about UNP at www.nebraskapress.unl.edu.
Please note that Banat is not a "German-language region of Romania". The dominant language in Banat is Romanian; Romanians are the majority population. There are, however, german, serbian, hungarian, and gypsy minorities. In some small areas these minorities may be majority. The village in which Herta Muller was born is an example where the majority was german.
Posted by: Dr. Florin Bobaru | October 14, 2009 at 05:42 PM