Bill Johnston (born 1960) is a prolific Polish language literary translator[1] and professor of comparative literature at Indiana University.
His work has helped to expose English-speaking readers to classic and contemporary Polish poetry and fiction.
In 2008 he received the Found in Translation Award for his translation of new poems by Tadeusz Różewicz;[2] this book was also a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Poetry Award.
In 1999, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship for Poetry (Translation) for Balladina by Juliusz Słowacki, and in 2005 he received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for a translation of The Coming Spring by Stefan Żeromski.
He is a recipient of the Amicus Poloniae award, presented by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland (2003), the Diploma of the Polish Foreign Ministry (2004), and the Officer's Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2012) for outstanding contribution to the promotion of the Polish culture and language in the U.S., as well as the development of Polish-American cultural cooperation.