1. Early life

2. Career

3. Works
    Translations  Other publications 

4. Awards

5. References

Ellen Elias-Bursać (born 1952) is an American scholar and literary translator. Specializing in South Slavic literature, she has translated numerous works from Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian.

Early life

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

She 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 International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), 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. She is Vice President of the American Literary Translators Association.

Works

Translations

From Bosnian

• {{cite web|first=Emira|last=Larson|authorlink=:bs:Emira Larson|title= Scheherazade|url=http://intranslation.brooklynrail.org/bosnian/scheherazade-by-emira-larson|publisher=In Translation|date=June 2014}}
• {{cite web|first=Karim|last=Zaimović|authorlink=Karim Zaimović|url=http://www.asymptotejournal.com/article.php?cat=Fiction&id=73&curr_index=9&curPage=Fiction|title=The Invasion of the Cows|publisher=Asymptote}}
• {{cite web|first=Karim|last=Zaimović|authorlink=Karim Zaimović|url=http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/episode-18-of-joseph-and-his-brothers|title=Episode #18 of "Joseph and His Brothers"|publisher=Words Without Borders}}

From Croatian

• {{cite book|authorlink=Slavenka Drakulić|first=Slavenka|last=Drakulić|title=Holograms of Fear|year=1993|publisher=The Women's Press|isbn=978-0704343351}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=Antun Šoljan|first=Antun|last=Šoljan|title=A Brief Excursion and Other Stories|year=2000|publisher=Northwestern University|isbn=978-0810116351}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=Dubravka Ugrešić|first=Dubravka|last=Ugrešić|title=Nobody's Home|publisher=Open Letter|year=2008|isbn=978-1934824009}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=Dubravka Ugrešić|first=Dubravka|last=Ugrešić|title=Baba Yaga Laid an Egg|publisher=Canongate|year=2010|isbn= 978-0802119278}}
• {{cite web|first=Đurđa|last=Otržan|authorlink=:hr:Đurđa Otržan|title= The Four Most Still|url=http://intranslation.brooklynrail.org/croatian/the-four-most-still|publisher=In Translation|date=January 2012}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=:hr:Tomica Šćavina|first=Tomica|last=Šćavina|title=Kaleidoscope World|year=2012}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=Daša Drndić|first=Daša|last=Drndić|title=Trieste|publisher=MacLehose|year=2013|isbn=978-1780878355}}
• {{cite web|authorlink=:hr:Neda Miranda Blažević-Kreitzman|first=Neda Miranda|last=Blažević-Kreitzman|url=http://www.buenosairesreview.org/2014/09/marilyn-monroe-my-mother|title=Marilyn Monroe, My Mother|publisher=Buenos Aires Review|date=2014}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=:hr:Ivana Simić Bodrožić|first=Ivana|last=Bodrožić|title=The Hotel Tito|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2017|isbn= 978-1609807955}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=:hr:Dubravka Ugrešić|first=Dubravka|last=Ugrešić|title=Fox|publisher=Open Letter|year=2018|isbn= 978-1940953762}} with David Williams

From Serbian

• {{cite book|authorlink=David Albahari|title=Words Are Something Else|first=David|last=Albahari|isbn=978-0810113060|publisher=Northwestern University|year=1996}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=:sr:Slobodan Selenić|first=Slobodan|last=Selenić|title=Fathers and Forefathers|isbn=978-1846554193|publisher=Harvill|year=2003}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=David Albahari|title=Götz and Meyer|first=David|last=Albahari|isbn=978-0151011414|publisher=Harcourt|year=2005}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=David Albahari|title=Snow Man|first=David|last=Albahari|isbn=978-1553650997|publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|year=2005}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=David Albahari|title=Leeches|first=David|last=Albahari|isbn=978-0151015023|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2011}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=David Albahari|title=Learning Cyrillic: Stories|first=David|last=Albahari|isbn=978-1628970906|publisher=Dalkey Archive|year=2014}}
• {{cite book|authorlink=David Albahari|title=Globetrotter|first=David|last=Albahari|isbn=978-0300201321|publisher=Yale University|year=2014}}

Other publications

• {{cite book|title=Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War|publisher=Other Press|year=2005|isbn=978-1590511961}} (With Svetlana Broz and Laurie Kain Hart)
• {{cite book|title=Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Textbook: With Exercises and Basic Grammar|publisher=University of Wisconsin|year=2010|isbn=978-0299236540}} (With Ronelle Alexander)
• {{cite book|title=Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal: Working in a Tug-of-War|publisher=Palgrave|year=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.^[9]

The Association for Women in Slavic Studies recognized Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal: Working in a Tug-of-War with the Mary Zirin Prize in 2015.^[10]

References

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