Kouba Doris

Doris Kouba was born in Darmstadt in 1974 to a Sudeten German mother and a Czech father. Having studied at the University of Hamburg (where her studies included West Slavic languages under the poet Antonín Brousek), she works as a literary translator from English, Czech and Slovak. She has translated novels, short stories, essays, plays and poetry by a number of contemporary Czech authors, notably Petra Hůlová, Ivana Myšková, Josef Pánek, Marek Šindelka and David Zábranský. She has won several awards for her work.

She is currently working on new translations of works by Karel Čapek into German, and she is also attempting to render Max Frisch’s Fragebogen [Questionnaire] into Czech. Doris Kouba lives and works in Hamburg, Prague and Hradec Králové, where she plans to establish a centre for literature and translation. She is a member of the VdÜ Assocation of Translators. She holds dual citizenship.