The National Endowment for the Arts enriches our lives

I know firsthand how important the National Endowment for the Arts is because the agency awarded me a grant that covered a large percentage of the costs associated with translating This Darkness Will Never End. 

I will be forever grateful to the NEA that its judges saw the merit of my project and my translation sample, a short story by Edith Bruck set during World War II that imagined a young German boy -- the son of a Nazi official -- rescuing a Jewish stowaway and taking her home. 

Edith Bruck is an important literary figure in Italy, and is considered by scholars the most prolific writer of Holocaust narrative working in Italian. The NEA knows the value of this!

The collection is now published (see link above; it's been reviewed by the Jewish Book Council, among other outlets) and it also includes other stories about Jewish families struggling as the specter of the Holocaust looms ahead, or later, postwar, remembering the dark horror of destruction that took nearly everyone and everything.

I'm also thoroughly impressed with how the agency goes about its work. I applied twice. When my first application was rejected, the staff told me I was eligible to talk by phone with the NEA to learn what the judges recommended if I wanted to re-apply. They made wonderful suggestions -- because the NEA is invested in any work of art with merit and a translation of Edith Bruck's work is always worthy of consideration -- and I incorporated the ideas into my second successful application.

So now, American readers have the opportunity to explore the lost world of Hungarian Jews through the stories found in This Darkness Will Never End, Edith Bruck's first short story collection. American readers can immerse themselves in the perspective of a survivor, inspired to create fiction that grapples with the unending sorrow stemming from losing both parents and a brother to the Holocaust.

It's fiction that scholars believe inspired Roberto Benigni when he filmed his Oscar-winning movie, "Life is Beautiful." Millions of Americans have seen that film -- and now they can read the story that helped inspire Benigni and perhaps get to know the author, a living legend in Italy.

And again, where are the NEA funds going?

In my case, to pay for the translation of this lost Italian Jewish classic. To provide a stipend to me so I could work on the translation and not translate the book for free (something that translators often do, since to pitch a project to a publisher or submit a grant application, they need a sample of the book in question).

Now the stories of this wonderful Italian author -- whom Pope Francis insisted on meeting to pay homage -- are available in English for the first time.

You can learn more about my project and the support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts here and you can also learn about other translations supported by the NEA here.

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who work at the NEA!

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