Translators-in-Residence
September 2022: applications for our 2022 French Visiting Translator Fellowship have now closed.
The French Embassy in Ireland and Alliance Française Dublin sponsor this annual residential translator fellowship at Trinity College Dublin. The prestigious fellowships are awarded to practising literary translators who are working on the translation a work of literature by an Irish author into French.
Fellowships typically last eight weeks and include travel, living expenses and accommodation, as well as a dedicated workspace at Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation. Fellows have access to the library of Trinity College Dublin, and to a wide range of facilities at the University, contact with members of the academic staff, free attendance at a range of events across the university, and especially at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation.
During their residency, Translation Fellows are asked to devote themselves to their work as literary translators, become active members of Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, and to use the Centre as their main work base. They interact with the wider College community, take part in public events organised by Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, the Alliance Française and the French Embassy, and join classes with post-graduate students in literary translation.
At end of their stay, Translation Fellows are asked to showcase their translation work at a public event hosted by Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation. They may also return to Dublin to launch the publication of their book at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation.
Translation Fellows are responsible for obtaining any necessary documents/visas to come to Ireland, and for obtaining international health and travel insurance. Fellows must comply with all vaccination and quarantine requirements set by the Irish Government and/or Trinity College Dublin.
This year’s Fellowship is scheduled to take place from late October-December 2022.
About the Fellowship
In February 2020, the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, the French Embassy in Ireland and Alliance Française Dublin celebrated the launch of their new French Visiting Translator Fellowship. The purpose of this fellowship is to bring translators to Ireland who are translating Irish literature into French.
Our inaugural French Visiting Translator Fellow was Mona de Pracontal. During her eight-week residency at Trinity College, Mona worked on her translation of Inch Levelsby Neil Hegarty, to be published by Joëlle Losfeld at Gallimard.
Mona de Pracontal (pictured below) graduated in English language and American Studies in Paris, and studied film history and filmmaking at Columbia University and The City College of New York. She started translating when she was a student and has not stopped since, with forays into the film industry and, more recently, conference interpreting. Her major translations include works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hannah Tinti, Cynan Jones, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, Rick Riordan, Frank Baum, Melvin Burgess, Howard Norman, Kaye Gibbons, Hanif Kureishi, and Conor O'Callaghan. She has also translated non-fiction by William Burroughs and Gloria Steinem. In 2009, she was awarded the Baudelaire Prize for literary translation for her translation of Half of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the Prix de Traduction de la Fondation Irlandaise 2019 for her translation of Nothing on Earth by Conor O'Callaghan.
Mona de Pracontal © Nutan Photography
Translation Residencies with Literature Ireland
For many years, Literature Ireland and Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation have jointly hosted a translator-in-residence at Trinity College Dublin. A bursary is awarded to a practising literary translator of established track record who is working on a translation of a work of contemporary Irish literature. Applicants for this bursary must provide proof that they hold a publishing contract for the work in question.
Travel and living expenses are covered by Literature Ireland, while accommodation and work space are provided by the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, Trinity College Dublin. Successful applicants are asked to work with students on our MPhil in Literary Translation and to take part in a public event near the end of their stay, focusing on their translation work.
Details of any future residencies, when available, will be posted on this page.
Previous translators-in-residence at the Centre include:
2020 Europe (German language) Anna-Nina Kroll (February-March 2020) worked on her translation of From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan. She has translated all of Ryan's other work into German. During Anna-Nina's residency, her translation of Milkman by Anna Burns was published. Peter Torberg plans to use his residency to translate the last of Adrian McKinty's nine-volume Sean Duffy series, The Ghosts of Saturday Night. Peter has translated the plays of Oscar Wilde as well as novels, short stories, poems and plays by many other writers, including Peter Carey, Anita Desai, Christopher HItchens, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twoain ad Michael Ondaatje - the list is far too long for this space! |
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2019, Japan Prof. Hiroko Mikami spent 4 months at the Centre. During her residency, she translated two of Tom Murphy's plays, Brigit and The House, into Japanese. Both are to be pubpublication in Tokyo in 2020. |
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2018, China Yiming Jin translated Maeve Brennan's short story collection The Springs of Affection into Chinese during her residency. |
Yiming Jin |
2017, Brazil During her time in Ireland, Débora Landsberg translated Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. She has also translated work by writers including Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Anne Enright and Joyce Carol Oates. |
Débora Landsberg (interview)  |
2016, Argentina "Translating James Stephens’ The Insurrection in Dublin on location, only metres away from where the book was written and where the action took place, with the celebrations of the 1916 centenary in full swing all around me, has been a rare and privileged experience." |
Matías Battistón |
2014-2015, Turkey |
Fuat Sevimay |
2013-2014, China |
Huiyi Bao |
| 2012-2013, Brazil | Guilherme da Silva Braga |
| 2011-2012, China | Jian Lu (Jenny Lu) Jianing Zhou |
| 2010-2011, Russian Federation | Vladimir Babkov |
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Click here for more information about applying for the 2020 bursary.
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"I was a Translator in Residence at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation for two and a half weeks in May 2017. It was a great experience: the accommodation was satisfactory and the budget provided was more than enough to tour Dublin and Ireland, which is what I predominantly did. Basically, you get a free rein, so you can either travel, make new friends and connections, or work on your translations, if you get time to relax at Tyrone Guthrie Centre in the Irish countryside. All in all, the good people at Literature Ireland and Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation do their best to make your stay as enjoyable as possible." Stefan Pajović (Summer 2017) |
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