The Modern Language Association of America awarded its eleventh Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies for an outstanding translation of a Yiddish literary work to UC Berkeley alumna, Allison Schachter (and co-author, Jordan Finkin). Established in 2000 by the family of Fenia and Yaakov Leviant, the award honors writers who have published an English translation of Yiddish literary works and scholars who have written a cultural study or critical biography in the field of Yiddish or edited a work on Yiddish folklore or linguistics. The prize is presented under the auspices of the MLA’s Committee on Honors and Awards.
The committee’s citation for Finkin and Schachter reads:
From the Jewish Provinces, Jordan Finkin and Allison Schachter’s translation of the Yiddish writer Fradl Shtok’s short stories, is a slim volume bursting with luminous prose. These twenty-four stories, set in the towns and Hasidic communities of Eastern Europe and the new spaces of Jewish life in the United States, feature the voices of young women as they seek love and try to realize their desires. The translators skillfully render Shtok’s poetic and evocative language into English, particularly in their fluid translation of the free indirect discourse (style indirect libre) that gives these characters their unique and modernist voices, making Shtok’s long-forgotten stories available and accessible to new audiences.
Learn more from Dr. Schachter here.