Since 2003, the Fund’s Grants to 250+ Translators Have Supported Significant Literary Works
(NEW YORK)— PEN America expresses sorrow over the death on Dec. 7 of Priscilla Heim, a teacher and editor, who with her late husband Michael Henry Heim, one of the preeminent literary translators of his time, established the PEN/Heim Translation Fund in 2003 at PEN America.
Their endowment, which remained anonymous until Michael’s death in 2012, has awarded grants to more than 250 literary translators to date and has become one of the most significant resources for emerging translators. Grants from the fund have supported translations into English from dozens of languages.
Priscilla died at age 93. The couple had lived for many years in the Westwood section of Los Angeles.
“More than 20 years after the fund was established, the Heim’s legacy is more vital than ever in supporting literary translators and international works of literature, and with Priscilla’s passing, PEN recommits itself to the goal of creating global literary culture and community,” said Allison Markin Powell, who represents the PEN America Translation Committee on PEN’s Board of Trustees.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Priscilla Heim whose dedication with her husband to the work of translators has greatly advanced progress in bringing literary works from across the world into English translation,” said Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, interim co-CEO and chief of Literary Programming at PEN America. “We extend our sorrow over her death to her family and friends.”
After a career as an editor, and as a single mother in her 40s with three children from a first marriage, Priscilla Heim earned a master degree in comparative literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she met her future husband, a faculty member. She taught at the Crossroads School where she created “Adopt a School,” a joint tutoring program at the 32nd Street Elementary School that continues to this day. Originally from Boston, she graduated from Radcliffe College in 1952.
Filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer, a former Crossroads student, recalled, “Priscilla taught me Latin in high school. With her erudition and mid-Atlantic accent she was a beguiling presence and impactful teacher who put up with our incompetence, patiently teaching Caesar and Cattulus, and polishing off our rough SoCal edges.”
During the Cold War, Michael and Priscilla were active members of Amnesty International, helping writers and scholars immigrate from Soviet-occupied countries into university positions in the United States. One young family included the then-9-year-old Max Boot, now a bestselling author, senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post.
Boot said: “She was such a kind and lovely person. I feel like I’ve known her my whole life and I’m the better for it. She really embodied all that is good about America.”
For years the couple’s Westwood home was a literary salon for East European writers including Milan Kundera, whose book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Heim, was a bestseller adapted into a movie. Another author Michael translated, Günter Grass, won the 1999 Nobel Prize.
A significant number of the literary works translated into English with grants from the fund have won or been shortlisted for major literary awards, including the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, and the Griffin Poetry Prize.
The couple established the fund to expand the number of books translated into English. He was one of the foremost translators of his time, having translated more than 20 notable authors. He translated works in eight languages and also taught a workshop on literary translation at UCLA.
The fund now has a rich legacy of unique success in finding publishers for major works and introducing English-speaking readers to exciting writers from abroad. Their gift of more than $700,000 grew through their frugality from a death benefit Michael’s mother received for his father’s loss as an American soldier during World War II.
Rosaz-Shariyf said: “For those of us who advocate for literature as a way to bring about greater understanding among people from different countries and cultures, the fund’s beginnings has endowed it with very special significance.”
She is survived by her children Jocelyn, Rebecca, and Michael, five grandchildren, and two step-grandchildren.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 201-247-5057
