Words without Borders is saddened to learn of the loss of distinguished editor, translator, and 2014 Ottaway Award winner Carol Brown Janeway, who passed away the morning of August 3.
“As both a translator and editor, Carol Brown Janeway has made a significant, enduring contribution to international letters,” said WWB Board Chair Samantha Schnee. “We extend condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues.”
As an editor and executive at Alfred A. Knopf, Janeway published writers like José Donoso, Yukio Mishima, Elsa Morante, Ivan Klíma, Robert Musil, and Nobel laureates Imre Kertész, Heinrich Böll, and Thomas Mann.
Janeway’s literary translations include such seminal writers as Thomas Bernhard, Bernhard Schlink, Daniel Kehlmann, Patrick Süskind, and Ferdinand von Schirach.
In October 2014, Words without Borders honored Janeway with the second annual Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature. The award recognizes an individual whose work and activism has supported Words without Borders’ mission of promoting cultural understanding through the publication and promotion of international literature.
Below, you can watch Janeway’s captivating acceptance speech about her career in publishing literature in translation.
