A native of Scotland, Kay McBurney spent much of the early eighties (after emerging from Edinburgh University with an MA in German) knocking about Germany and Austria, initially earning a crust as a teacher of English before commencing a career as a commercial translator.
In recent years she has increasingly turned her hand to the more creative end of the market. The Franconian/Scots poetry workshop organized by No Man’s Land in 2008 was the first time she dipped her toe into more literary waters. Seeking to wade in deeper, in 2019 she entered the Goethe-Institut’s competition for emerging literary translators in the UK, and in February 2020 was delighted to be presented with the Goethe-Institut Award for New Translation for her English rendition of an extract from Sibylle Berg’s Die Fahrt.
Kay is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Translation and Interpreting and a member of the Society of Authors/Translators Association.
Her translations of Reiner Kunze’s poems in Issue 15 arose from a lockdown project, for which she would like to thank two friends: Karen G. for gifting her a copy of lindennacht to celebrate winning the Goethe-Institut Award, and Karin McP for her generous support and encouragement.
Winter 2020 (Issue 15), Childhood Memory
Winter 2008 (Issue 03), Idendidäd