National Centre for Writing, Emerging Translator Mentorships
The National Centre for Writing is seeking applications from translators into English for the 2024/25 Emerging Translator Mentorship programme. The deadline for applications is 11.59pm on Monday 26 August 2024.
The Emerging Translator Mentorships scheme matches experienced translators with emerging translators for a six-month period during which they work together on practical translation projects, developing their craft through working on a chosen text or texts. The mentor acts as an adviser to the mentee on aspects of life as a professional translator, such as time management, meeting deadlines, managing finances and understanding contracts, and as an advocate for their mentee with publishers in search of literary translators.
The aim of the Emerging Translator Mentorships programme is to bridge the gap between qualifying as a proficient translator and becoming established as a literary translator. An emerging translator is someone who has published no more than one full-length work of literary translation.
Though English is the target language for translators participating in the programme, it need not be the translator’s first, native, L1 language or mother tongue, and the emerging translator need not live in the UK (unless this is a specified requirement for a particular mentorship strand).
This year’s languages:
- Arabic (mentored by Sawad Hussain)
- Faroese (mentored by Marita Thomsen)
- Italian (mentored by Elena Pala)
- Japanese (mentored by Polly Barton)
- Korean (mentored by Clare Richards)
- Lithuanian (mentored by Kotryna Garanasvili)
- Polish (mentored by Sean Gasper Bye)
- Languages of Singapore (mentored by Jeremy Tiang); this mentorship is open to literary translators working from either or various of the languages of Singapore (Malay, Singaporean Mandarin, Tamil, Kristang or other minority languages) into English. This mentorship is open to all, but preference will be given to literary translators who are Singaporean Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents, regardless of their actual place of residence.
- Mentorship for a chronically ill translator (mentored by Annie Rutherford); this mentorship is open to UK-based literary translators who identify as chronically ill working from any language into English.
Mentees receive:
- Six months of personal mentoring with a mentor in their language or field
- A stipend to cover expenses associated with the mentorship
- A tailored programme of online industry events with workshops and talks
- Exposure through a digital showcase and the publication of an anthology with sample translations
- One year’s membership of the Society of Authors/Translators Association
- Entry to London Book Fair
Find out more on the National Centre for Writing website.
