Jon Cho-Polizzi

Dr. Cho-Polizzi's research focuses on literary translation, as well as topics of migration and multilingualism in the contemporary German-speaking world. His book project, tentatively titled Resistance, Resilience, Representation: Unmaking the Myths of Post-Wende Germany harnesses his extensive work as a translator of contemporary German-language literature to examine the intersectional networks of authors, activists, and journalists pushing to reimagine the multidirectional history of Post-Unification Germany.  Since 2022, he has been Faculty Coordinator for the Rackham Interdisciplinary Working Group "Alamanya: Transnational German Studies" and is affiliated with the Department of Comparative Literature.

Fields of Interest

• Contemporary Literature
• Literary Translation and Translation Studies
• Poetry and Poetics
• Migration, Transnationalism, and Multiculturalism
• Trans- and Multilingualism
• Post- and Decolonial Studies

Booklength Translations

• Djinns (Wisconsin University Press) by Fatma Aydemir, September 2024 / [Dschinns]
• Where the Poplars Grow (Shift Books) by Irina Unruh and Viktoria Morasch, July 2024
• Ada's Room (Riverhead Books) / Ada's Realm (MacLehose Press) by Sharon Dodua Otoo, March 28 / April, 2023 [Adas Raum]
• De-Integrate! A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century (Restless Books) by Max Czollek, January 10, 2023 [Desintegriert Euch!]
• Your Homeland is our Nightmare: An Antifascist Essay Collection (Literarische Diverse) by Fatma Aydemir and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, co-editor, December 13, 2022 [Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum]

Public Humanities

• "One of the most exciting emerging voices in the German-language literary scene": my recent interview with author and journalist Lin Hierse @ New Books in German, Oct 13, 2024
• October 1, 2024, 6:30-8:00 PM (EST): Keynote Address for receiving the 2024 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translators Prize @ Goethe-Institut New York, Manhattan, NY
• "From Sea to Shining Scene": my editorial on the 2024 Versopolis Long Night of Poetry at the Hausacher LeseLenz Festival, July 25, 2024
• June 13, 2024 7:00-8:30 PM (CET) "#Vorzeichen: Disrupting Translation" with Dr. Thalia Ostendorf, Dr. Leila Essa, and Dr. Maha El Hissy @ Goethe Institut, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Panel discussion on translation with Mirjam Nuenning and Hadija Haruna-Oelker @ Resonanzen Festival, Recklinghausen, Germany, June 1, 2024
• "Author Meets Translator: A Conversation with Sharon Dodua Otoo and Jon Cho-Polizzi" @ poco.lit., Berlin, Germany, March 7, 2024
• February 6, 2024: Ada's Room a reading and discussion with Dr. Marie Larose and Dr. Jeaenette Oholi @ Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT
• November 10, 2023: "BIPOC Caucus x Asian American Writers Workshop Translation Reading" from Lin Hierse's Wovon wir träumen for the American Literary Translators' Association Conference
• November 9, 2023: "Bilingual Readings: Multigenre Potpourri Reading" from Mikael Vogel's Dodos auf der Flucht for the American Literary Translators' Association Conference
• "Communication is Part of Belonging": my recent interview with Gina Balibrera
• Editor for the open-access translation of Your Homeland is our Nightmare (Transit Journal, December 2021), edited by Fatma Aydemir and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah (Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum). This collection presents essays on community, belonging, discrimination, and the concept of homeland from a diversity of voices and positionalities spanning the contemporary German-speaking world, providing an accessible, comparative study for an English-language readership interested in transnational diversity discourse.

Upcoming Events

Catch my upcoming presentations, workshops, and writers' conversations this spring (and check back soon for upcoming events in Europe this summer):

• May 15, 2025 7:00-9:00 PM (PDT): "A Conversation on Contemporary Literature with Jon Cho-Polizzi and Tamara Loewenstein" @ Goethe-Institut SF, San Francisco, CA 
• April 22, 2025 3:40-5:00 PM (EDT): "A German Studies Translation Workshop" @ Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (virtual)
• April 18, 2025, 9:30-11:15 AM (PDT) "American Literary Translators Association Spring Multilingual Translation Workshop" @ ALTA, Tucson, AZ (virtual)

Recent Events

• March 21, 2025, 3-5:30 PM (EDT): "Literary Kinship in the Age of Radical Diversity," Keynote Address for Senior Capstone Symposium @ University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
• March 8, 2025 7-8:30 PM (EST): "Wor(l)ds in Motion: Translation Beyond the Canon" Keynote Address for Area Studies of German @ NeMLA Conference, Philadelphia, PA
• January 12, 2025, 8:30-8:45 AM (CST): "Literary Alliances, Networks, and Solidarities" @ MLA Conference, New Orleans, LA
• November 11, 2024: Festival Neue Literatur: "The Next Orbits" in conversation with Sharon Dodua Otoo @ Goethe-Institut New York, Manhattan, NY
• October 26, 2024, 3:30-4:30 PM (EDT): Boston Book Fair "Book Talk: Djinns" @ Goethe-Institut Boston, Boston, MA
• October 25, 2024, 3:30-5:00 PM (EDT): Conversation and bilingual reading with Fatma Aydemir @ Mandel Reading Room 303, Mandel Center for Humanities, Brandeis University Campus, Waltham, MA
• October 24, 2024, 6:30-8:00 PM (EDT): Conversation and bilingual reading with Fatma Aydemir @ Deutsches Haus Columbia, Manhattan, NY
• October 24, 2024, 5:00-6:00 PM (EDT): Translation workshop @ Deutsches Haus Columbia, Manhattan, NY
• October 21, 2024, 4:00-6:00 PM (CDT): "Djinns: A Conversation with Fatma Aydemir" @ University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 
• October 18, 2024, 6:00-7:00 PM (CET): Versopolis Poetry Reading with Mikael Vogel @ Frankfurter Buchmesse, Frankfurt, Germany
• June 18, 2024 12:30-2:00 PM (GMT): "Encounters: A Conversation with Fatma Aydemir" @ University of London, London, UK
• April 25, 2024 1:30-3:15 PM (PDT): "ALTA (German) Translation Workshop" @ ALTA, Tucson, AZ (virtual)
• April 17, 2024 9:30-10:30 AM (PDT): "Of Return: Literary Translation and Contemporary German Jewish Poetry" @ University of Washington, Seattle, WA (virtual)
• March 20, 2024: "What is the Plural Form of Djinn?" guest lecture @ University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
• March 20, 2024: "'She could do it all and still wear the same hat': A Workshop Translating Fatma Aydemir" @ University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
• March 14, 2024: "Overcoming the Present: Author and Publicist Max Czollek in Poetic Dialogue with Translator Jon Cho-Polizzi" @ Deutsches Haus, NYU, Manhattan, NY
• February 5, 2024: "Translation Masterclass" @ Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
• December 1, 2023: Poetry Translation Workshop with Ronya Othmann, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• December 1, 2023: "'Between Them, A Staircase Without Grammatical Gender': Translation as Authorship in the Works of José F. A. Oliver", Cultures in Motion Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• November 9, 2023: "A Clean (Tran-)Slate: Research & Practice of Literary Translation Roundtable" with translator-scholars Sonia Colina, Silvia Guslandi, Patrick Ploschnitzki, Jamie Richards, Diana Thow, and others @ ALTA 46, Tucson, AZ
• October 6, 2023: "Was ist die Mehrzahl von Dschinns?" German Studies Association Conference, Montréal, Canada 10:15-12:14 pm EST
• September 6, 2023: "Positionalities: A Reading & Discussion on Translation & Representation" with Profs. Peter Höyng, Priscilla Layne, Adrienne Merritt, and Didem Uca. Making the Canon, Breaking the Canon: The Task of the Translator, Emory College, Atlanta, GA
• April 1, 2023: "Ada's Room: Author Event" with Sharon Dodua Otoo, Source Booksellers (4240 Cass Avenue, Detroit), 2-4 pm EST
• March 31, 2023: "Ada's Room: Realms in Translation" with Sharon Dodua Otoo, @ 2210ABC Michigan Union (second floor), 2-4 pm EST
• Book Tour for De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century with Dr. Max Czollek
• January 12, 2023: "Paranoid Poetics: Excavating a Language of Gegenwartsbewältigung" with Dr. Max Czollek, 3308 MLB, 2:30-4 pm EST
• September 27, 2022: "Translating Adas Raum," Ziegler Lecture Series at the University of British Columbia, 12:30 pm PST (3:30 pm EST)
• September 20, 2022: Introducing "Revenge: Fantasy and Self Determination in Jewish Discourse" by Dr. Max Czollek, 2435 North Quad, 5-7 pm EST

Recent and Pending Publications

• "Dreaming Is Free: A Reflection on Asian German Translation and Translators’ Introduction to Lin Hierse’s Wovon wir träumen" co-authored with Elizabeth Sun in Anti-Asian Racism in Transatlantic Perspectives: History, Theory, Cultural Representations and Social Movements (transcript Verlag, forthcoming 2025)
• "'Between Them, a Staircase without Grammatical Gender': Translation as Authorship in the Works of José F. A. Oliver" in Cultures in Motion: Migration, Exile, and Refuge (De Gruyter, forthcoming 2025)
• "Was ist die Mehrzahl von Dschinns?: Translating the Transnational" in Companion to Turkish German Literature (Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming 2025)
• "Translating the Archive: An Introduction to the Translation of 'The Archive of Migration' by Deniz Utlu" in Companion to Turkish German Literature (Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming 2025)
• "Between the Orbits: Translating Adas Raum" in German Life and Letters: Special Issue on Sharon Dodua Otoo, vol 77.1 (January 2024)
• "Almanya: A [Different] Future is Possible" in TRANSIT Journal 13.2, July 19, 2022

Recent Awards and Distinctions

• Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize 2024: De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century, by Max Czollek (translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi)
• Long List for Dublin Literary Award 2024: Ada's Realm by Sharon Dodua Otoo (translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi)
• TOLEDO-Mobilitätsfonds 2023, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, facilitating a one-month Translator-in-Residence at the Literary Colloquium Berlin as well as participation in the Internationales Übersetzertreffen in Berlin and public speaking engagements at the Übersetzerzentrum at the Leipzig Bookfair.
• My literary translations have been recommended or reviewed by The Baffler, Jewish Currents, Kirkus Reviews, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New York Times, and Publishers Weekly.