{{infobox person}} {{short description|British-Israeli-American translator|bot=PearBOT 5}} '''Jessica Cohen''' ({{Langx|he|ג'סיקה כהן}}; born 1973) is a British-Israeli-American literary translator. Her translation of David Grossman's 2014 novel ''A Horse Walks Into a Bar'' was awarded the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.<ref>{{cite news|title=David Grossman and translator Jessica Cohen win Man Booker International Prize|url=http://www.cbc.ca/books/2017/06/david-grossman-and-translator-jessica-cohen-win-man-booker-international-prize.html|accessdate=19 June 2017|work=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Shea|first1=Christopher D.|title=Man Booker Winners Agree: Translating Jokes Is Hard|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/books/man-booker-winners-david-grossman-jessica-cohen-conversation.html|accessdate=19 June 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 June 2017}}</ref>

==Biography== Cohen was born in Colchester, England to Stanley Cohen and Ruth Kretzmer in 1973.<ref>{{cite web|title=Stanley Cohen (1942-2013)|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/sites/default/files/04%20Cohen%201808.pdf|publisher=The British Academy|accessdate=19 June 2017}}</ref> She moved with her family to Israel at the age of seven and went on to study English literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After moving to the United States with her husband in 1997, she studied Middle Eastern literature and languages at Indiana University.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Hebrew Translator on Translation|url=http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/_blog/The_ProsenPeople/post/On_Translation/|publisher=Jewish Book Council|accessdate=19 June 2017|archive-date=18 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118130826/http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/_blog/The_ProsenPeople/post/On_Translation|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Cohen has translated a number of Hebrew language books into English, including those by Nir Baram, David Grossman, Amir Gutfreund, {{ill|Yael Hedaya|he|יעל הדיה}}, Ronit Matalon, Rutu Modan, Dorit Rabinyan, Tom Segev, Etgar Keret, and Nava Semel. She currently resides in Denver, Colorado.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jessica Cohen|url=http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/jessica-cohen|website=Words Without Borders|accessdate=19 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Jessica Cohen|url=http://worldbookshelf.englishpen.org/writers-in-translation-translators-Jessica-Cohen|publisher=English PEN|accessdate=19 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=18 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170618114329/http://worldbookshelf.englishpen.org/writers-in-translation-translators-Jessica-Cohen|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jessica Cohen |url=https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/translation-fellows/jessica-cohen |access-date=2025-08-04 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}</ref>

At the awards ceremony for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, Cohen announced that she would donate half of her share of the winnings to B’Tselem.<ref>{{cite news|title=Israel's artists are celebrated abroad; less so at home|url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21723873-culture-wars-jewish-state-israels-artists-are-celebrated-abroad-less-so|accessdate=23 June 2017|newspaper=The Economist|date=23 June 2017}}</ref>

==Translations== *''To the End of the Land'', David Grossman (2010) *''Falling Out of Time'', David Grossman (2014) *''A Horse Walks into a Bar'', David Grossman (2017) *''All the Rivers'', Dorit Rabinyan (2017) *''At Night's End'', Nir Baram (2018) *''Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land'', Amos Oz (2018) *''And the Bride Closed the Door'', Ronit Matalon (2019) *''Further Up the Path'', Daniel Oz (2019) *''The Drive'', Yair Assulin (2020) *''Selected Plays, I, II, III'', Hanoch Levin (2020) *''Three'', Dror Mishani (2020) *''More Than I Love My Life'', David Grossman (2021) *''At Night's End,'' Nir Baram (2021) *''What Makes an Apple?'', Amos Oz & Shira Hadad (2022) *''Conviction'', Dror Mishani (2022) *''World Shadow'', Nir Baram (2022) *''Professor Schiff's Guilt'', Agur Schiff (2023) *''Stockholm'', Noa Yedlin (2023) *''Every Wrinkle Has a Story'', David Grossman (2024) *''The Hebrew Teacher'', Maya Arad (2024) *''The Thinking Heart: On Israel and Palestine'', David Grossman (2024) <ref>{{cite web|title=Translated Books|author=Jessica Cohen |url=https://www.thehebrewtranslator.com/books|access-date=1 April 2025}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== *{{official|https://www.thehebrewtranslator.com}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Jessica}} Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:British emigrants to Israel Category:Israeli Jews Category:Hebrew–English translators Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States Category:Literary translators Category:Writers from Colchester Category:Writers from Denver Category:Writers from Jerusalem