Kathleen Heil

Poet, Fiction Writer, Translator

Berlin

Author's Bio

Kathleen Heil is an artist working with languages of the body and written word. Her poetry, translations, and prose appear in The New Yorker, The Common, The Threepenny Review, and many other journals. Originally from New Orleans, Heil studied Dance, Art History, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University and the University of Edinburgh, Italian at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy, and holds a master’s degree in Creación Literaria from the Escuela Contemporánea de Humanidades in Madrid as well as an MFA in Creative Writing & Translation from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, where she also taught writing and dance. As a dancer / choreographer, Heil has collaborated with various artists in the U.S. and Europe and performed her own work in New York (Movement Research), Helsinki (museum of impossible forms), New Orleans (Contemporary Arts Center), and elsewhere. A recipient of grants and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Art Omi, and the Federal Association of Dance in Germany, among others, she lives and works in Berlin. She is the author of the poetry collection You Can Have It All (Moist Books, 2024), the translator of The Loveliest Vowel Empties, Meret Oppenheim’s collected poems (World Poetry, 2023), and of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s Letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2022).

Publications & Prizes

Fiction

Journals:
Barcelona Review
, ,
Fence
, , ,
Joyland
,
NANO Fiction
, , ,

Poetry

Book:
You Can Have It All (Moist Books, 2024)

Translation

Books:
The Loveliest Vowel Empties: Collected Poems by Meret Oppenheim, translated from the German (World Poetry Books, 2023)
;
Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s Letters to Annie and Oskar Müller-Widmann by Walburga Krupp (Scheidegger & Spiess / Fondazione Marguerite Arp), translated from the German (University of Chicago Press, 2022)
;
The Peculiar State by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish (Vintage, 2015)
Journals:
Arkansas International, a poem by Meret Oppenheim, translated from the German
;
BOMB Magazine, a story by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish
;
Brooklyn Rail, a story by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish
;
Chicago Review, a story by Nona Fernández, translated from the Spanish
;
Michigan Quarterly Review, a story by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish
;
New Yorker, a poem by Meret Oppenheim, translated from the German
;
Threepenny Review, a story by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish
;
Two Lines, a poem by Gustavo Barrera Calderón, translated from the Spanish
;
Two Lines, a story by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish
Prizes won: 

(selected)

  • Berlin Senate Research Stipend for Translation, 2024
  • Fonds Darstellende Künste grants, 2023 & 2022
  • Dachverband Tanz Deutschland grants, 2022 & 2020
  • Deutscher Übersetzerfonds grants, 2022 & 2021
  • Berlin Senate Research Stipend for Non-German Literature, 2021
  • StoryQuarterly Fiction Prize, judged by Garth Greenwell, 2020
  • National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, 2016
  • Sturgis International Fellowship, 2015-2016

contact: www.kathleenheil.net/contact

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Fluent in: 
German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Sep 30, 2024