A. Leslie Willson
(1978-1979)

Many are called but few literary translators are chosen—steeped in their own reading and capacities for language, they respond to a pressing need within themselves that they recognize also in the world of literature, a need to seek and find, to press and probe, to tag and tug the literary craft of an author from one language into another. Literary translators have great hearts; they fall in love with language, woo words, embrace thoughts, and while working break through the bonds of space and time. They are voyagers and explorers and keepers of flames. They are possessed in a real sense by an attraction to literary works in a foreign language, some of which they are compelled to share, if they possibly can, with readers of another language. Through the formation of ALTA, in which I was privileged to play a role, literary translators found the long-sought company of like-minded readers and practitioners of linguistic magic and have reveled in their common cause ever since. They bring persistent craftsmanship and with delight share insights, debate puzzles, and press forward with their responses to the summons they perceive.

Leslie Willson is the co-founder of the American Literary Translators Association. In addition to the translations of numerous short stories, articles and poems from the German, he has translated the following novels: The Man in the Tower and Himmelfarb by Michael Krüger, There is No Borges, Papa's Suitcase, Innerfar, and Bluff, or The Southern Cross by Gerhard Köpf, and Angels Are Black and White by Ulla Berkéwicz. From 1968 to 1994 he was the editor of Dimension, a bilingual literary magazine dedicated to the presentation of contemporary German-language authors. He is a corresponding member of the Darmstadt Academy for Language and Literature and the Mainz Academy of the Sciences and Literature and is the recipient of the Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klasse from the Federal Republic of Germany and the Goethe Medaille from the Goethe-Institut in Munich.