Peter Filkins is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and literary translator. Filkins graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

with a Bachelor of Arts and from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

with a Master of Fine Arts degree. His poetry collections include the forthcoming ''Water / Music,'' as well as ''The View We’re Granted'', co-winner of the 2013 Sheila Motton Best Book Award from the New England Poetry Club, and ''Augustine’s Vision'', winner of the 2009 New American Press Chapbook Award. His poems, essays, reviews, and translations have appeared in numerous journals, including ''The New Republic'', ''Partisan Review'', ''The New Criterion'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

'', ''The Yale Review'', the ''New York Times Book Review'', and the ''Los Angeles Times''. He is a recipient of a 2005 Berlin Prize from the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...

, a 2015-2016

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Fellowship, a 2014 Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellowship, and a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to Austria. In 2012 he was writer-in-residence at the

James Merrill House The James Merrill House is a 19th-century house at 107 Water Street in Stonington Borough in southeastern Connecticut, formerly owned by poet James Merrill. Upon his death in 1995, the house was kept by the village as a home for writers and scho ...

, and he has held residencies at

The MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowel ...

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, and the

Millay Colony for the Arts Millay Arts, formerly the Millay Colony for the Arts, is an arts community offering residency-retreats and workshops in Austerlitz, New York, and free arts programs in local public schools. Housed on the former property of feminist/activist poet ...

. Filkins has also translated several books of postwar

German literature German literature () comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a l ...

into English. His translation of Ingeborg Bachmann’s collected poems, ''Songs in Flight'', received an Outstanding Translation Award in 1995 from the

American Literary Translators Association The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is an organization in the United States dedicated to literary translation. ALTA promotes literary translation through its annual conference, which draws hundreds of translators and literary profes ...

and was reissued in an expanded second edition titled ''Darkness Spoken'', which received a Distinguished Translation Award from the Austrian Ministry for Education, Art, and Culture in 2007. Filkins was the first to translate

H. G. Adler Hans Günther Adler (2 July 1910, in Prague – 21 August 1988, in London) was a German language poet, novelist, scholar, and Holocaust survivor."The Long View", Ruth Franklin, ''The New Yorker'', January 31, 2011, Books, pp 74-78. Life Born in P ...

's novels into English. ''The Journey'', ''Panorama'', and ''The Wall'', the three novels Filkins translated, were written soon after the war, but were not published until the 1962, 1968, and 1988, respectively. Filkins' translation of ''Panorama'' was listed as one of the best books of 2011 by ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'''s editorial staff. and The Wall was named a Best Book of the Year for 2014 by ''Publishers Weekly''. His biography, ''H.G. Adler: A Life in Many Worlds,'' was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

in March 2019. Filkins has taught literature and writing at

Bard College at Simon's Rock Bard College at Simon's Rock (more commonly known as Simon's Rock) is a private residential liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is a unit of Bard College, which is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The school i ...

since 1988 and translation at the main campus of

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 18 ...

since 2006. Filkins was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in April 2022.

Bibliography

Poetry * * * * * Literary translations * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins * Trans. Peter Filkins Biography *Filkins, Peter (2019). ''H.G. Adler: A Life in Many Worlds.'' Oxford University Press. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Filkins, Peter Living people American male poets American translators Bard College at Simon's Rock faculty Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Williams College alumni MacDowell Colony fellows Year of birth missing (living people)