Michael Kandel

Michael Kandel (born 1941) is an American translator and author of science fiction. Kandel was born into Polish Jewish family. He received a doctorate in Slavistics from Indiana University, and is an editor at the Modern Language Association. Kandel is also a part-time editor at Harcourt, editing (among others) Ursula K. Le Guin's work. Kandel is perhaps best known for his translations of the works of Stanislaw Lem from Polish to English. Recently he has also been translating works of other Polish science fiction authors, such as Jacek Dukaj, Marek Huberath and Andrzej Sapkowski. The quality of his translations is considered to be excellent and is especially notable in the case of Lem's writing, which makes heavy use of wordplay and other difficult-to-translate devices.