Jascha Kessler

Jascha Kessler has published 7 books of his poetry and fiction as well as 6 volumes of translations of poetry and fiction from Hungarian, Persian and Bulgarian, several of which have won major prizes.  In 1989, his translation of Sándor Rákos’ CATULLAN GAMES won the Translation Award from the National Translation Center (MARLBORO PRESS, Marlboro, VT).  His latest volume of fiction, SIREN SONGS & CLASSICAL ILLUSIONS: Modern Fables@amazon.com .  He served as Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Monica 1990-1996, and won a Fellowship in Fiction Writing for 1993-1994 from the California Arts Council.  His recent works include a translation of KING OEDIPUS, with a Translator’s Preface in SOPHOCLES, 2 (Univ. of Pennsylvanis Press, 1999). In 2000, he  published  with Xlibris Corporation (http://www.xlibris.com).a novel: RAPID TRANSIT: 1948 — An Unsentimental Education; his COLLECTED POEMS; a revised edition of his first stories, AN EGYPTIAN BONDAGE; CHRISTMAS CAROLS & OTHER PLAYS; TATAGA'S CHILDREN, fairy tales translated from the Serbian of Grozdana Olujic; and in 2001, TRAVELING LIGHT: SELECTED POEMS OF  KIRSTI SIMONSUURI, translated from the Finnish, and OUR BEARINGS AT SEA: A NOVEL IN POEMS, translated from the Hungarian of Ottó Orbán. TAHIRIH: A PORTRAIT IN POETRY, Selected Poems of Quarratu'l-Ayn. Edited and translated by Amin Banani. Commentary on the life and work by Amin Banani. English Poems by Jascha Kessler [with additional by Anthony E. Lee]. Introductory essay by Jascha Kessler: On Translating a Persian Mystical Poet. Kalimat Press. Los Angeles. 2004.