A Life in Translation: Hans-Christian Oeser

Please join us for an evening with acclaimed literary translator Hans-Christian Oeser. Chris will be in conversation with Professor Michael Cronin at a special event to celebrate his 250 publications, which include 200 translations. 

Chris and Michael will discuss the world of literary translation today and how things have changed over the course of Chris's career, during which time he has become one of the best-known names in the world of literature translated into the German language.

All are welcome and admission is free, but registration is required. In person and online tickets are available.

The event is made possible thanks to a collaboration between the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation and the Association of Translators and Interpreters Ireland, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

Hans-Christian Oeser was born 1950 in Wiesbaden, Germany. He works as a literary translator and editor of anthologies and English language editions.

He has translated many novels, as well as short story and poetry collections, particularly by Irish writers including Leland Bardwell, Sebastian Barry, Colin Barrett, Brendan Behan, Maeve Brennan, Anne Enright, Dermot Healy, Hugo Hamilton, Jennifer Johnston, Claire Keegan, Louise Kennedy, Michael Longley, Bernard MacLaverty, Eugene McCabe, Patrick McCabe, John McGahern, Eoin McNamee, Christopher Nolan, Derek Mahon, John Montague, Paul Muldoon, Jamie O’Neill, Peig Sayers, and William Trevor.

Classics and modern classics include works by Charles Dickens, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Samuel Pepys,  H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, W.M. Thackeray, and Mark Twain.

Hans-Christian Oeser was awarded the Aristeion Prize (1997), the Rowohlt Prize (2010), the Braem Prize (2014), and the Straelener Übersetzerpreis / Straelen Translator's Prize (2020). He is an Honorary Member of the Association of Translators and Interpreters Ireland. On 17 April 2026, he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Litt.D.) from Trinity College Dublin, in recognition of his life's work.

Michael Cronin is 1776 Professor of French at Trinity College Dublin and former director of the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation

He has taught in universities in France and Ireland and has held Visiting Research Fellowships to universities in Canada, Belgium, Peru, France and Egypt. He is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Academia Europaea, an Officer in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, an Honorary Member of the Association of Translators and Interpreters Ireland, and currently a Senior Researcher in the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation.

He has authored 13 monographs, co-edited eight edited collections and written over 150 refereed articles and book chapters. His work has been translated into 16 languages including Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Modern Greek. Among his published works are Across the Lines: Travel, Language, Translation (Cork University Press, 2000), Translation and Globalization (Routledge, 2003), Translation and Identity (Routledge, 2006), The Expanding World: Towards a Politics of Microspection (Zero Books, 2012), Translation in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2013), Eco-Translation: Translation and Ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2017) and Eco-Travel: Journeying in the Anthropocene (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His research interests are in the areas of eco-criticism, travel writing, translation theory and history, Irish studies, Franco-Irish cultural relationships, and Quebec and Acadian Studies.