Transfiction is a collective of experienced native speaker translators with offices in Berlin and Hamburg. We specialise in translating and editing literary fiction and non-fiction as well as marketing and communication texts for arts and business clients.
Lucy Jones translates literary fiction, art catalogues, plays and journalism from the German. She studied German Language and Literature at UEA with W.G. Sebald and worked as a freelance photographer before becoming a translator. She has lived in Berlin since 1998, where she runs Transfiction and the Fiction Canteen reading series. Her latest translations include Anke Stelling’s Schäfchen im Trockenen (Higher Ground) forthcoming in 2021 by Scribe, Blueprint by Theresia Enzensberger (Dialogue Books), I Have No Regrets: Diaries 1955-1963 by Brigitte Reimann and The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by Silke Scheuermann (Seagull Books). She has published her own writing in SAND, Visual Verse, Pigeon Papers NY and 3AM Magazine. In 2020, she was longlisted for the Craft Journal’s Short Fiction Prize.
Jenny Piening translates a broad range of art, museum, theatre, travel, business and marketing texts, as well as an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction, from German. Her book translations include the business bestseller The Decision Book by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler (Profile Books), The Therapist’s Treasure Chest by Andrea and Filip Caby (Norton), and a series of sci-fi novels by Phillip P. Peterson. She has a background in journalism and editing.
Karen Witthuhn translates novels and theatre plays into German. She is a member of Drama Panorama, Forum für Übersetzung und Theater, and a board member of the International Theatre Institute Germany. She has worked as a theatre director, as well as dramaturg and production manager for international theatre festivals. She has translated a wide range of authors including Anita Nair, George Pelecanos, Percival Everett, Lisa Owens, Mark Peterson, M.J. Arlidge and Tania Chandler. Her translations (with colleague Sabine Längsfeld) of the bestselling crime writer Simon Beckett, regularly make it onto the bestseller lists of Die Zeit.
Photos by Anne Meurer.