Michael Marion Naydan (born 1952) is an American literary scholar and translator,the Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies at Pennsylvania State University.[1] He is known for his translations of Ukrainian and Russian literature and for his academic work in Slavic studies.[2]
Naydan was born in 1952. He is the son of Ukrainian immigrants who were forced laborers during World War II.[2] He earned a B.A. (1973) and M.A. (1975) in Russian Studies from American University.[1] He completed his graduate work at Columbia University,receiving an M.Phil. in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages in 1984.[1]
Career
Naydan began his academic career as a lecturer at Yale University (1982–1986) and Rutgers University (1986–1988).[1] In 1988,he joined the faculty of Pennsylvania State University,where he was appointed the inaugural Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies in 2007.[1][2]
Lina Kostenko. Selected Poetry of Lina Kostenko:Wanderings of the Heart. Garland Publishing,1990. ISBN978-0-8240-2532-8
Marina Tsvetaeva. After Russia (Posle Rossii). Co-translated with Slava Yastremski. Ardis Publishers, 1992. ISBN978-0-87501-077-9
Yuri Andrukhovych. Perverzion. Northwestern University Press, 2005. ISBN978-0-8101-1964-2 (Winner of the 2005 AAUS Translation Prize)[3]
Herstories: An Anthology of New Ukrainian Women Prose Writers. Edited and co-translated by Michael M. Naydan. Glagoslav Publishers, 2014. ISBN978-1-909156-01-2
A review in East/West Journal of Ukrainian Studies noted that the anthology "achieves its ambitious objectives quite successfully."[4]
Abram Terz (Andrei Sinyavsky). Strolls with Pushkin and Journey to the River Black. Co-translated with Slava Yastremski, Olha Tytarenko, Maria Badanova. Columbia University Press, 2016. ISBN978-0-231-17822-8
A review in the Slavic and East European Journal praised the translation for its "accuracy and creativity."[5]
Yuri Andrukhovych. My Final Territory: Selected Essays. Co-translated with Mark Andryczyk. University of Toronto Press, 2018. ISBN978-1-4875-0175-4 (Winner of the 2018 AAUS Translation Prize)[6]
Maria Matios. Sweet Darusya: A Tale of Two Villages. Co-translated with Olha Tytarenko. Spuyten Duyvil, 2019. ISBN978-1-949966-45-9
A Slavic Review article described it as a "superb translation" that captures the novel's "stylistic richness."[7]
Serhii Rudenko. Zelensky: A Biography. Co-translated with Alla Perminova. Polity Press, 2022. ISBN978-1-5095-5306-8
Books authored
Seven Signs of the Lion (novel). Glagoslav Publishers, 2016. ISBN978-1-78437-943-8 (Translated into Ukrainian in 2017).[1]
George S. N. Luckyj Ukrainian Literature Translation Prize (2013): Awarded by the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies.[9]
AAUS Translation Prize: Awarded multiple times by the American Association for Ukrainian Studies. Wins include 2005 for Yuri Andrukhovych's Perverzion and 2018 for Andrukhovych's My Final Territory.[3][6]
References
1234567Michael M. Naydan. Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures. Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
12345"Professor receives Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages award". Penn State News. March 21, 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
12"Prize Winners of the AAUS Translation competition". American Association for Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
↑Onyshkevych, Maria G. (2016). "Herstories: An Anthology of New Ukrainian Women Prose Writers, edited by Michael M. Naydan". East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies. 3 (2): 191–193. doi:10.21226/ewjus.v3i2.66.
↑Sadetsky, A. (2017). "Review of Strolls with Pushkin and Journey to the River Black". The Slavic and East European Journal. 61 (2): 390–392. JSTOR44862419.
12"2018 AAUS Prize Winners Announced". American Association for Ukrainian Studies. November 23, 2018. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
↑Hryn, Halyna (2020). "Review of Sweet Darusya: A Tale of Two Villages by Maria Matios". Slavic Review. 79 (3): 677–678. doi:10.1017/slr.2020.207.
↑"Prof. Michael M. Naydan Receives The Outstanding Contribution to the Profession Award from AATSEEL". Penn State Dept. of Germanic & Slavic Lang. & Lit. February 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
↑"Luckyj Prize in Ukrainian Literature Translation". Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
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