Ellen Elias-Bursać

Ellen Elias-Bursać (née Ellen Elias, born 1952) is an American scholar of South Slavic literature, and a literary translator of works from the Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian.

Early life

Ellen Elias-Bursać was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her parents were Peter Elias and Marjorie Forbes. She has two brothers.^[1] Her aunt was Barbara Elias, a poet.^[2]

Elias-Bursać studied at the Commonwealth School in Boston, graduating in 1970.^[3] She attended Macalester College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian literature and language in 1974. ^[4] During her undergraduate studies, she attended a study abroad programme in Yugoslavia. She worked as a freelance translator, and studied towards a Master's degree at the University of Zagreb.^[5] In 1999, she received a PhD from University of Zagreb in philology; her dissertation was titled Augustina-Tina Ujevića prijevodi iz anglo-američke književnosti: komparativno/kontrastivna lingvo-stilistička analiza.^[6]

Career

Elias-Bursać worked as a language preceptor in the Slavic department of Harvard University for 10 years. In 2005, she joined the English Translation Unit of the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. ^[7] Since leaving the ICTY she has been working as a free-lance translator, an independent scholar, and a contributing editor to Asymptote.

Works

Translations

From Bosnian

• Larson, Emira (June 2014). "Scheherazade". In Translation.
• Zaimović, Karim. "The Invasion of the Cows". Asymptote.
• Zaimović, Karim. "Episode #18 of "Joseph and His Brothers"". Words Without Borders.

From Croatian

• Drakulić, Slavenka (1993). Holograms of Fear. The Women's Press. ISBN 978-0704343351.
• Blažević-Kreitzman, Neda Miranda (2014). "Marilyn Monroe, My Mother". Buenos Aires Review.
• Drndić, Daša (2013). Trieste. MacLehose. ISBN 978-1780878355.
• Otržan, Đurđa (January 2012). "The Four Most Still". In Translation.
• Šćavina, Tomica (2012). Kaleidoscope World.
• Šoljan, Antun (2000). A Brief Excursion and Other Stories. Northwestern University. ISBN 978-0810116351.
• Ugrešić, Dubravka (2008). Nobody's Home. Open Letter. ISBN 978-1934824009.
• Ugrešić, Dubravka (2010). Baba Yaga Laid an Egg. Canongate. ISBN 978-0802119278.

From Serbian

• Albahari, David (1996). Words Are Something Else. Northwestern University. ISBN 978-0810113060.
• Albahari, David (2005). Götz and Meyer. Harcourt. ISBN 978-0151011414.
• Albahari, David (2005). Snow Man. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-1553650997.
• Albahari, David (2011). Leeches. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0151015023.
• Albahari, David (2014). Learning Cyrillic: Stories. Dalkey Archive. ISBN 978-1628970906.
• Albahari, David (2014). Globetrotter. Yale University. ISBN 978-0300201321.
• Selenić, Slobodan (2003). Fathers and Forefathers. Harvill. ISBN 978-1846554193.

Other publications

• Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War. Other Press. 2005. ISBN 978-1590511961. (With Svetlana Broz and Laurie Kain Hart)
• Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Textbook: With Exercises and Basic Grammar. University of Wisconsin. 2010. ISBN 978-0299236540. (With Ronelle Alexander)
• Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal: Working in a Tug-of-War. Palgrave. 2015. ISBN 978-1137332660.

Awards

In 1998, Elias-Bursać received the AATSEEL Award for best translation from a Slavic or East European language for David Albahari's Words are Something Else. In 2006, she was given the National Translation Award for Albahari's Götz and Meyer.^[5] Her translation of Trieste by Daša Drndić won the Independent Foreign Fiction Readers' Prize in 2013.^[8]

References

1. Massey, James L. "Peter Elias of computer science is dead at 78". Image Formation & Processing Group, University of Illinois. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
2. "Barbara Elias Wrote Poetry, Was Independent Thinker". Vineyard Gazette. February 10, 2005.
3. "Alumni/ae Donors – 1970s". Commonwealth School. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
4. "Class Notes". Mac Wire. January 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
5. "Translator Relay: Ellen Elias-Bursać". Words Without Borders. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
6. "Katalog" (in Croatian). Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
7. Elias-Bursać, Ellen (18 February 2015). Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal: Working in a Tug-of-War. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-137-33267-7.
8. "Trieste wins Readers' Prize". MacLehose Press. May 20, 2013.