Will Firth
Will Firth is an Australian-German literary translator who focuses on contemporary writing from the Serbo-Croatian speaking countries and North Macedonia.
He graduated in German and Russian from the Australian National University in Canberra in 1986. He won a scholarship to read South Slavic studies at the University of Zagreb in the 1988–89 academic year and spent a further postgraduate year at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow in 1989–90. Subsequently, he qualified as a translator from Croatian, German, Macedonian and Russian with the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters in Australia. Since 1991 he has been living in Germany, where he works as a freelance translator of literature and the humanities. He translates from Russian, Macedonian, and all variants of Serbo-Croatian into English, occasionally into German. In 2005-07 he worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Since the mid-2000s, Firth has largely been translating works of South Slavic literature. He is a member of the professional associations of translators in the UK and Germany. Firth has been an Esperantist since 1985.
Major translations
Translations into English
From Macedonian
Anya's Diary, children's novel by Dimitar Baševski, Slovo, Skopje, 2007Pirey, novel by Petre M. Andreevski, Pollitecon Publications, Sydney, 2009 Stolen Thoughts, bilingual collection of poetry by Dušan Ristevski, Macedonian Literary Association “Grigor Prlichev”, Sydney, 2011The Sunrise in My Dream, bilingual collection of poetry by Ivan Trposki, Macedonian Literary Association “Grigor Prlichev”, Sydney, 2013- Homunculus, short stories by Aleksandar Prokopiev, Istros Books, London, 2015The Eighth Wonder of the World, novel by Jordan Plevneš, Plamen Press, Washington, D.C., 2020
From Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian
- Hansen's Children, novel by Ognjen Spahić, Istros Books, London, 2011The Coming, novel by Andrej Nikolaidis, Istros Books, London, 2011Our Man in Iraq, novel by Robert Perišić, Istros Books, London, 2012, and Black Balloon Publishing, New York City, 2013 A Handful of Sand, novel by Marinko Koščec, Istros Books, London, 2013The Storm in the Still Life, epistolary novel by Ivan B. Vodopija, Ex Libris, Zagreb, 2013The Son, novel by Andrej Nikolaidis, Istros Books, London, 2013 Ekaterini, novel by Marija Knežević, Istros Books, London, 2013The Great War, novel by Aleksandar Gatalica, Istros Books, London, 2014Till Kingdom Come, novel by Andrej Nikolaidis, Istros Books, London, 2015Quiet Flows the Una, novel by Faruk Šehić, Istros Books, London, 2016Journey to Russia, travelogue by Miroslav Krleža, Sandorf, Zagreb, 2017Head Full of Joy, short stories by Ognjen Spahić, Dalkey Archive Press, Victoria, 2018Mothers and Daughters, novel by Vedrana Rudan, Dalkey Archive Press, Victoria, 2018A Novel of London, novel by Miloš Crnjanski, Diálogos, New Orleans, 2020From Nowhere to Nowhere, novel by Bekim Sejranović, Sandorf, Zagreb, 2020Divine Child, novel by Tatjana Gromača, Sandorf Passage, South Portland, 2021Horror and Huge Expenses, short stories by Robert Perišić, Sandorf Passage, South Portland, 2021Sea, Sun, Salt: Short Stories from Montenegro, various authors, Gligorije Dijak, Podgorica, 2022Balkan Bombshells: Contemporary Women's Writing from Serbia and Montenegro, various authors, Istros Books, London, 2023Take Six: Six Balkan Women Writers, various authors, Dedalus Books, Sawtry, 2023Anomaly, novel by Andrej Nikolaidis, Peirene Press, Bath, 2024