Sieglinde Lug, a professor emerita at the University of Denver, helped introduce the writing of 2009 Nobel literature prize winner Herta Müller to English-speaking countries.
Lug translated Müller’s 1999 tome, Nadirs (University of Nebraska Press) from German to English. Müller, a German author, was awarded the prize Oct. 8.
“It’s really wonderful that a book that is so powerful will get more attention now,” Lug says.
Nadirs is based on Müller’s childhood experiences in Romania. She describes a troubled life where violence and corruption are prevalent under the oppression of the state.
Lug made final revisions to the book while she was teaching a Techniques of Translations course at DU. She mentions four of her students in the afterward. Since the announcement of the Nobel Prize, Lug’s received e-mails from some of those students.
“The students were quite helpful in making suggestions,” she says. “It is wonderful that they heard about this.”
Lug taught German, comparative literature and women’s studies at the University of Denver from 1978 to 2005. She acted as the director of the women’s studies program from 1995–99.