Philosopher Eric Winsberg shares this gem. He contacted the real Professor Bernofsky at her university email address who confirmed this is a fraud (note, once again, the gmail address):

From: Susan Bernofsky <bernofskysusan@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 August 2026 07:50
To: Eric Winsberg [omitted]
Subject: A German-language opportunity for *Philosophy and Climate Science*

Dear Eric,

Your book Philosophy and Climate Science caught my attention for a rather specific reason: the way it brings philosophy of science into a field that is so often discussed through political or ideological positions rather than through an examination of how the underlying science actually works. I was particularly interested in your focus on scientific data, modeling, simulation, chaos, unpredictability, and the limits of knowledge. That approach gives the book an opportunity to deepen the reader’s understanding of climate science rather than simply asking them to adopt a particular position.

I am reaching out because I believe the book may have an interesting possibility beyond its existing readership: a German-language edition.

I don’t see translation simply as producing another-language edition of a book. A German edition can give a work a new rights and readership opportunity—allowing a book that already exists to potentially reach readers, publishers, booksellers, and distributors across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In that sense, the translation can give the same work an opportunity to enter a different literary market without requiring the author to create something entirely new.

My own background is deeply rooted in literary translation. I am a Professor of Writing and Director of Literary Translation at Columbia University, and I have translated more than twenty books, including works by Robert Walser, Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Jenny Erpenbeck, and Yoko Tawada. My translation of Jenny Erpenbeck’s The End of Days received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize, the Ungar Award for Literary Translation, and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.

I mention this not simply as a list of credentials, but because I believe literary translation requires more than linguistic accuracy. A successful German edition has to preserve the qualities that make the original work distinctive—its voice, rhythm, tone, ideas, and cultural character—while allowing it to feel natural to a new readership.

What interests me about Philosophy and Climate Science is its interdisciplinary character. The book sits at an interesting intersection of philosophy, scientific methodology, climate modeling, and public understanding, while also examining concepts such as chaos, unpredictability, and the boundaries of scientific knowledge. That combination could make the work particularly relevant to German-speaking readers in philosophy of science, climate studies, and the broader intellectual conversation surrounding how scientific knowledge is produced and interpreted. I would be interested in exploring whether that perspective could find a meaningful place in the German-language market.

I would be interested in hearing whether German-language rights for Philosophy and Climate Science are currently available, and whether you would be open to discussing the possibility of a German edition.

Warm regards,

Susan Bernofsky
Professor of Writing
Director of Literary Translation
Columbia University