Michael Kandel

Michael Kandel (born 24 December 1941, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American translator and author of science fiction.

Biography

Kandel received a doctorate in Slavistics from Indiana University. His most recent position was editor at the Modern Language Association. Prior to that, at Harcourt, he edited (among others) Ursula K. Le Guin's work.

Kandel is perhaps best known for his translations of the works of Stanisław Lem from Polish to English.

Recently he has also been translating works of other Polish science fiction authors, such as Jacek Dukaj, Tomasz Kołodziejczak, Marek Huberath and Andrzej Sapkowski. The quality of his translations is considered to be excellent; his skill is especially notable in the case of Lem's writing, which makes heavy use of wordplay and other difficult-to-translate devices.