Estelle Gilson
Writer/Translator

Selected Translations

The Faithful Lover
The Strega Prize winning collection of stories by the Italian creator of realismo magico.
Separations
Bontempelli's two best known magical novels about mothers and children.
The Stories and Recollections of Umberto Saba
Includes the illustrious poet's memories of Trieste's ghetto in 1860 and his famous Shortcuts .
October 16, 1943 / Eight Jews
Giacomo Debenedetti's elegant and classic narrative is the earliest and most valued historical resources on the German round-up of Roman Jews.
The Chess Set in the Mirror
"This whimsical Italian fantasy...belongs on the shelf next to The Little Prince and Alice and Wonderland. Simple language by translator Gilson gives the novel a poetic tone, while STO's charming black-and-white illustrations add humor." —VOYA
To Be Recorded
A chapbook of selected poems by The Grand Duke of New York translated from Hebrew with their author's assistance.

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Biography

Estelle Gilson is a writer, journalist and translator, member of ALTA and PEN. As contributing editor to both Present Tense and Columbia (U) magazine she interviewed many notables in art, science and literature, including eighteen Nobel laureates. Her short fiction has appeared in a score of publications including the new renaissance, Other Voices, and Wind. She translated the Hebrew poetry of Gabriel Preil, (To Be Recorded - Cross Cultural Communications) as well as a translation from the French of Le Juif, a story by Stendhal, which appeared in Midstream. She and Aphra Behn are the only women whose Juvenalian Satires appear in Penguin's Juvenal in English.

Estelle Gilson's translations from Italian include The Stories and Recollections of Umberto Saba and Separations: Two Novels by Massimo Bontempelli. Her translation, October 16, 1943/Eight Jews by Giacomo Debenedetti, was issued by Notre Dame University Press. Her most recent translations are The Chess Set in the Mirror (Paul Dry Books) and The Faithful Lover (Host Publications). Currently, Ms.Gilson writes on cultural issues for Congress Monthly.

Awards:

  • 1988: CASE Silver Medal Award for Best Article of the Year (Columbia Magazine).

  • 1991: Columbia University Translation Center Italo Calvino Award

  • 1992: PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award

  • 1994: MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Literary Translation Award for best literary translation of the previous two years.

  • 2000: Foreword Magazine gold medal award for translation



Grants:

  • NEA

  • NYSCA

  • Littauer Foundation

  • Memorial Foundation