Winner
John Dryden Translation Prize
2024
Alongside performing, I translate from German and Italian into English
for trade and academic publishers, and for the stage.
My work spans literary fiction, commercial non-fiction, essays, poetry and opera libretti.
My translation of Pergolesi’s comic opera La serva padrona won the John Dryden Prize in 2024, and was premiered in March 2025 with funding from the City Music Foundation.
I was runner-up of the Goethe-Institut Award for New Translation in 2022 for my work on Ulrike Draesner’s novel Schwitters, and won third prize in the 2020 Geisteswissenschaften International Non-Fiction Translation Prize for a translation from Thomas Bauer.
After graduating with a First in Modern Languages from Oxford University,
I worked in editorial for several years at a London commercial publisher, before going freelance.
Recent & Forthcoming Publications
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The Wisdom of Old Dogs
Over 10,000 copies sold
Elli H. Radinger
Translated by George RobartsA dog is for life,
but an old dog’s wisdom is for ever.Published by Mirror Books, 2019
A Sunday Telegraph gift book of the year
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Aesthetics of Pop Music
Available at Tate Bookshops
Diedrich Diederichsen
Translated by George RobartsPop music cast in a fresh light by one of Germany’s foremost cultural critics.
Published by Polity Press, 2023
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German Romanticism and Latin America
ed. Jenny Haase and Joanna Neilly
Contributing translator on literary responses to Wilhelm Müller and Franz Schubert’s Winterreise.
Published by MHRA (Legenda), 2024
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In AI We Trust
Helga Nowotny
New preface translated by George RobartsHas our world of predictive algorithms changed what it means to be human?
Published by Polity Press, 2021
New edition 2024
“George Robarts’ translation was strong on sound effects throughout, an imaginative blend of German and English focusing on the echoes and rhymes between them.”
Goethe-Institut Award Jury, 2022
“George’s work stood out for its precision and refinement.”
GINT Prize Jury, 2020