Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in 2025, the Emerging Translator Mentorship programme was founded by Daniel Hahn in 2010 with the aim of developing successive new cohorts of literary translators into English, particularly for languages whose literature is currently under-represented in English translation.

The scheme matches up 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 evidence to date suggests that participation in the scheme represents, in itself, a significant professional development for mentees, with publishers seeing the mentoring cohort as a reliable source of high-quality emerging translators.

What you will receive

Mentees receive a £800 stipend to cover expenses associated with the mentorship, such as travel. The mentorship will include various online industry events with tailored training events and talks, a feature at International Translation Day and attendance of London Book Fair with a networking day either in London or at NCW’s headquarters at Dragon Hall in Norwich. 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 also be published, to further amplify the translators’ work.

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 for six months, from October 2025 to March 2026, including an in-person meeting coinciding with London Book Fair between 9-12 March 2026, and a final showcase in April 2026. During the mentorship, 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.

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. We particularly welcome applications for all mentorships from those groups which are currently under-represented in the literary translation community.

How to apply

Applications should be uploaded via a Google Form (the link will go live on Friday 1^st August 2025; please check on the NCW website here). 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.

If uploading your application is inconvenient or inaccessible for you, or 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. Queries can also be sent to the email address above.

The deadline for receipt of entries is 11.59pm BST, Sunday, 31 August 2025.

Your application must include the following:

• A 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
• 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

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

Successful applicants will be informed by Monday 15 September 2025.

Supported by Arts Council England and FarLit

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 – applicants can be based anywhere in the world.

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 a day at Dragon Hall and the London Book Fair, this does offer an opportunity for a face-to- face meeting if both are able to attend.

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 (the American Literary Translators Association), 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.