Generously Endowed by Martha Stevns

Martha Stevns grew up in the Swiss-German-speaking part of Switzerland and studied German Literature and Linguistics. Her love of literature has always stayed with her, and reading in German, French and English has been and still is one of her great pleasures. Peirene’s aim of bringing literature from different cultures and languages to the English-speaking world through translations of high-quality writing fits right into Martha’s philosophy of appreciating and sharing the richness of different cultures.

Involvement and support of the arts has long been a part of Martha’s life: Martha worked as an editor at the Swiss art magazine DU while running her own contemporary art gallery in the UK. In addition, Martha’s late husband founded the Australian Vogels Literary Award together with the Australian newspaper and the publisher Unwin Australia for an unpublished manuscript by young Australian writers. With the Stevns Translation Prize, Martha, together with Peirene and Two Lines Press, wants to support young translators and hopes it will help break down linguistic (and other) barriers. Martha moved to the UK in 1985 and now lives in Cambridge.