Applications for the 2025/26 programme are now closed. The call-out for the 2026/27 round of Emerging Translator Mentorships will open in July 2026. Please check back here for updates or sign up for our newsletter.
The 2025–26 languages are:
- Arabic (mentored by Sawad Hussain)
- Faroese (mentored by Marita Thomsen)
- Dutch from Flanders (mentored by Jonathan Reeder)
- Korean (mentored by Clare Richards)
- Lithuanian (mentored by Kotryna Garanasvili)
- Norwegian (mentored by Rosie Hedger)
- Polish (mentored by Sean Gasper Bye)
- Languages of India (mentored by Mohini Gupta); this mentorship is open to India-based translators only, who have not received a Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship in the last five years and who agree to attend London Book Fair as part of the mentorship.
All mentorships are open to translators based anywhere in the world, except for the Languages of India mentorship, which is available only to those based in India.
Here’s what to expect from the application process.
What selected mentees will receive
Mentees receive six months of personal mentoring with a mentor in their language or field. They will also be awarded an £800 stipend to cover expenses associated with the mentorship, such as travel, with an uplift of up to £300 if the mentee attends London Book Fair. (Mentees selected onto the Arabic, Dutch from Flanders and the Languages of India strands will receive additional financial support for travel).
The mentorship will include various online industry events with tailored training and talks, a feature at International Translation Day and attendance of London Book Fair with a networking day in either Norwich or London. The mentees’ work will also be celebrated in a concluding digital showcase, when a print and digital anthology with samples of the mentees’ translations will be published, to further amplify their work. In addition, mentees are offered one year’s membership of the Society of Authors/Translators Association.
National Centre for Writing will facilitate an initial planning meeting between successful applicants and their mentors to agree on the scope of their project and how they will work together. The mentoring period lasts from October 2025 to March 2026, including an in-person meeting in Norwich or London from 9-12 March 2026. During this time, the mentoring pair will meet at least four times, either in person, by virtual media or by phone as appropriate and agreed between them. In between meetings, they will exchange work and comments via email.
As soon as publishers hear that I am an NCW programme mentee they take me and my work seriously. The NCW programme is a kind of quality label.
Who can apply?
The programme is open to emerging translators at no cost to them. An emerging translator is someone who has published no more than one full-length work of literary translation. MFA and MA students in translation can apply, but priority may be given to those who do not have access to the kind of guidance already present in a translation degree programme.
Though English is the target language, the emerging translator need not live in the UK. Please note additional eligibility criteria for some mentorships, however:
- Languages of India (mentored by Mohini Gupta); this mentorship is open to India-based translators only, who have not received a Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship in the last 5 years and who must attend London Book Fair as part of the mentorship (NCW and the Charles Wallace India Trust will be on hand for visa applications).
We particularly welcome applications for all mentorships from those groups which are currently under-represented in the literary translation community.
I started my translation career as a mentee in this very program, so it’s such a delight now to be on the other side… The NCW mentorship programme is building the kind of collaboration and community that literary translation is all about.
How to apply
Applications for the 2025/26 programme are now closed. The call-out for the 2026/27 round of Emerging Translator Mentorships will open in July 2026.
Applications need to be uploaded via a Google Form. Please note, you will need a Google account (which can be created easily and linked to a non-Google email address) to upload your application documents.
Your application must include the following:
- A one-page covering letter stating why you believe you would benefit from a mentorship, and what you can bring to the mentor and mentorship
- Your CV: with a focus on your translation work and experience (no more than three pages)
- A one-page sample book proposal: this should demonstrate your understanding of the text, author and source culture, but also of the English language market for the translation and its target readership
- A sample translation of up to 2,000 words of prose or up to 100 lines poetry or dramatic text: this is ideally taken from your sample book project, but can also be a different text or texts
- The source text that corresponds to your sample translation
- Please also complete the brief survey on equality, diversity and inclusion, which is included in the Google Forms link above. For each question, there is an option to select ‘Prefer not to say’ and all answers will be treated
- Please note: you MUST NOT use artificial intelligence (“AI”) for any part of your application, including the sample translation. The use of AI in your application will render it ineligible.
Applications will be assessed by the relevant mentor. Their assessment will be based on the following criteria:
- strength of the sample proposal: how well the applicant demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the text, author, language and possible issues; how original and relevant the text and author are for a translation project into English; the applicant’s awareness of the source language market, and target language market and audience in English
- strength of the translation: the applicant’s technical competence in handling the grammatical, syntactical and stylistic features of the source text; how well written, creative and enjoyable the translation is; and
- the mentor’s own suitability to best support an applicant.
Successful applicants will be informed by mid-September and will be announced publicly on International Translation Day on 30 September 2025 with a short, pre-recorded video. Please make sure you are available to record and email a short video by 28 September 2025.
If you require assistance to make the application process more accessible for you, please email [email protected] with the subject ‘ETM 25/26‘ and the language or mentorship strand for which you are applying.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ‘Emerging’ mean?
Emerging refers to a translator who has published no more than one full-length work of literary translation. Applicants with commercial translation experience are encouraged to apply.
What should I include in my CV/Covering Letter?
Your CV should detail any previous translation experience as well as any other relevant experience. Your covering letter should explain how you think you’ll benefit from the programme and what you would bring to the mentorship.
What should I include in my sample proposal?
Your proposal should include a short synopsis of a text, a short biography of the original author, and answer the following questions: why would this text benefit from translation and what is the appeal of the text in the English language market? We would advise against choosing a text which has already been translated into the English language for the purposes of this sample proposal. The proposal need not be a full book pitch, but you may find translator Ros Schwartz’s guidance on pitches here helpful.
Should my sample translation be from the text I would like to work on during my mentorship?
Your sample translation does not have to be from the same text you are proposing to translate but it may help your mentor to assess your proposal, particularly if they are unfamiliar with the text you are proposing to work with. The piece you eventually work on will be decided between you and your mentor, and may be different to the sample project you propose.
Do I have to be based in the UK to apply?
No, you do not have to be a UK resident to apply. Please note that different residency criteria apply to the Languages of India mentorship (see question below).
What are the eligibility criteria for the Languages of India mentorship?
To be eligible for the Languages of India mentorship, you must be an emerging translator who:
- translates from any of the languages of India into English
- is based in India
- has not received a Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship in the last five years (as of 1st October 2025)
- must travel to the UK to attend London Book Fair (NCW and the CWIT will support your visa application)
What kind of project do I need to choose for the Dutch from Flanders mentorship?
To apply for the Dutch from Flanders mentorship, you will need to select a “Flemish” translation project. This could be, but is not limited to, cases where:
- the author is Flemish (family heritage)
- the author is from Flanders/Brussels (brought up there)
- the author writes in Flemish/Dutch from Flanders
- the author is based in Flanders/Brussels and writes in Dutch from Flanders (but may have been brought up elsewhere)
In case of doubt, please email us to check if your project is eligible.
The translator can be based anywhere in the world and need not have a Flemish/Flanders connection.
Why do you give priority to applicants who are not in full-time education?
The mentorship seeks to support those translators who do not currently have a supportive network of experienced translators and mentors around them.
Will I have to meet my mentor face-to-face for our sessions?
No – you may not live in the same country or continent as your mentor and sessions can occur exclusively via electronic media. As mentors and mentees are invited to an in-person networking day and the London Book Fair, this does offer an opportunity for a face-to- face meeting if both are able to attend.
What happens if my mentor doesn’t translate from the same language as me?
The mentorship is designed to help with the challenges of translation as a whole – identifying universal translation issues beyond individual languages. The scheme will help you better understand literary translation and the industry at large. With regards to non-language specific mentorships, we aim to provide a couple of sessions of language- specific support in addition to the general mentorship (details to be confirmed with the successful applicant).
What does ‘no more than one full-length work of literary translation’ mean?
Applicants can have published 0 or 1 full-length works of literary translation. It is not essential for applicants to have published any literary translations up until this point, but they must not have published 2 or more works of literary translation to be eligible.
‘Published’ means that the translations have already appeared, or are contracted to appear.
‘Full-length’ works include fiction and creative non-fiction titles, such as novels, novellas, short story collections, memoirs, travel accounts, essays, etc. (not included in this definition are academic or other non-fiction translations, such as guidebooks, manuals, dictionaries, artist catalogues, or similar), as well as poetry collections (not pamphlets or chapbooks), anthologies (not single anthology entries) and full-length plays (not excerpts, for example in anthologies).
Will my application be considered if I am currently participating in another mentorships programme, or if I have applied for another translation mentorships programme simultaneously?
While applicants are encouraged to apply simultaneously to multiple mentorship programmes, such as those offered by ALTA, LTAC/QWF, or others, please note that successful applicants will only be allowed to pursue one mentorship at a given time. In other words, applicants selected for more than one mentorship will need to choose one to accept. This allows our programmes to support the greatest number of emerging translators.
MFA and MA students in translation can apply, but priority may be given to those who do not have access to the kind of guidance already present in a translation degree programme.
Do I need to have secured the rights to the book I am proposing in my sample translation and/or do these rights need to be available?
No, you do not need to have sourced the rights to the book you are proposing in your sample. Your sample proposal is designed to assess your knowledge of the English language market and where your chosen book might sit within this. The book you propose to translate may not be the project you end up working on during the mentorship – this is decided in the initial meeting – and the rights to your chosen text can be acquired during the mentorship process.
Can I apply to become a mentor on the programme?
We are currently inviting mentors directly to participate in the programme once we have been able to confirm funding for the relevant language or strand. We recognize that this process is not the most transparent way to select mentors and are working towards implementing an application process. More experienced translators interested in becoming mentors will be able to apply to be considered as mentors and, if eligible, will be added to a pool of mentors and contacted if their relevant language pair will be on offer in an upcoming mentoring year. We will advertise a call for applications for the mentoring pool via our usual channels.
The Emerging Translator Mentorships Programme is supported by Arts Council England, Charles Wallace India Trust, FarLit, Flanders Literature, Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Polish Cultural Institute, Royal Norwegian Embassy, South Asian Literature in Translation, Sheikh Zayed Book Award and The Society of Authors.
