By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
The U.K. National Centre for Writing (NCW) today announced the nine early-career literary translators selected for its Emerging Translator Mentorships Program for 2026/27. The new class—whose work spans a diverse range of languages, including Dutch, Mandarin and Malayalam—was revealed today with the translators set to introducing themselves at a special event marking International Translation Day.Now in its 17th year, the program champions “outstanding new voices in literary translation into English” with a focus on literatures underrepresented in translation. An emerging translator is someone who has published no more than one full-length work of literary translation.
The 2026/27 Emerging Translators Are:
Sheila Nyholm DSouza (credit: Daniel Linaric).
Sheila Nyholm D’Souza (Danish, mentored by Paul Russell Garrett): “D’Souza is a Danish-to-English literary translator based in Vancouver, Canada. She is particularly interested in contemporary Danish literature, social realism, and historical fiction, and is drawn to work that centers women and marginalized voices and explores questions of identity and belonging. In 2025, she was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Leif and Inger Sjöberg Prize, which recognizes an emerging translator of Nordic literature.”
Hanna Wheeler (Dutch, mentored by Jonathan Reeder): “Wheeler is a Belgian Canadian who lives and works in Toronto as a copywriter and Dutch-to-English translator. She has attended an array of specialized workshops, translated a few romance novels, and most recently worked on the nonfiction title The Six: The Untold Story of the Antwerp Six by novelist Oscar van den Boogaard.”
Lil Boyce (Italian, mentored by Elena Pala): “Boyce is an emerging literary translator, working from Italian into English. She shares her time between Sassari, Sardinia, and Coventry in the U.K. In 2026, Lil completed a Masters in Translation at the Open University and participated in the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) Summer School. Her first publication is forthcoming in the Massachusetts Review.”
Tiffany Chang (credit: Hannah Lin).
Tiffany Chang (Korean, mentored by Clare Richards): “Chang is a Korean-English literary translator from Los Angeles and is currently based in Wisconsin. She is interested in translating lesbian, feminist, and diaspora literature and expanding the global literary landscape for contemporary Korean women writers. Tiffany is also a translation submissions reader for ANMLY, an international journal of experimental literature and the arts.”
Cheryl Schmitz (Literature from Taiwan, mentored by Jeremy Tiang): “Cheryl Schmitz is a literary translator working from Chinese and Portuguese into English. An anthropologist by training, she is especially interested in fiction by women and queer authors. Schmitz is originally from the United States and has lived in Brazil, China, Angola, and Germany. She currently resides in Taipei.”
Aparna Thomas (Languages of India, mentored by Mohini Gupta): “Aparna Thomas is a literary translator working from Malayalam into English, with a particular interest in sound, rhythm, and performance. Her translations of the poet Anvar Ali have appeared in Muse India, Weavers Literary Review, and the international anthology 127 Poetry Voices. She is currently working on a full-length collection of Anvar Ali’s poetry in translation. She is based in Ernakulam, Kerala.”
Jordan Barger (credit: Nynorsk Kultursentrum.)
Jordan Barger (Norwegian, mentored by Rosie Hedger): “Jordan Barger is a translator of Norwegian literature based in Philadelphia with a keen interest in Nynorsk poetry. His translations have been featured in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Review, FENCE, Circumference and beyond. His translation of Leander Djønne’s Eat All is forthcoming with Daunt Books in 2028.”
Azja Kulpińska (Polish, mentored by Sean Gasper Bye): “Azja Kulpińska born, raised and educated in Poznań (Poland), currently based on unceded Wurundjeri land of the Kulin Nations (aka Melbourne, Australia). A language-lover, an emerging literary translator between Polish and English, a zine-maker, a queer community worker, a parent, a member of a grassroots collective Incendium Radical Library. Azja attended the BCLT Summer School in Polish prose taught by Antonia Lloyd-Jones in 2026.”
Gemma Craig-Sharples (Swiss German, mentored by Jamie Lee Searle): Gemma Craig-Sharples is a translator from London currently living in Berlin. She has previously worked for New Books in German and the German Translation Fund and is currently an assistant poetry editor at Asymptote. A participant in the German strand of the 2026 BCLT Summer School, her co-translations of poetry and prose have appeared as part of the project Que(e)ry Points. At the moment, she’s working on a proposal for a creative-critical PhD exploring translation’s negative spaces.
‘Over 150 Emerging Translators’
Daniel Hahn (credit: Camila França Photography).
“This year’s cohort is our most wide-reaching yet, as our nine wonderful mentees are spread across the globe from Vancouver to Melbourne, helping us to mark a milestone: since its inception, the Emerging Translator Mentorships Program has now supported over 150 emerging translators,” said Rebecca DeWald, Emerging Translator Mentorships Program Manager said, in a release. “With our very first Australian mentee and the introduction of our new Literature from Taiwan strand, we are continuing to break new ground—and looking at the mentees’ diverse proposals, I know their work will do the same and add a host of new and previously unheard voices to the canon of books available to English-language readers.”
Founded in 2010 by translator, writer, and editor Daniel Hahn, the Emerging Translator Mentorships program pairs early-career translators with experienced mentors for six months of focused development. Mentees work on a practical translation project, receive a £800 stipend, and one year’s membership to The Society of Authors/Translators Association, and participate in training weekends, publishing industry events (including International Translation Day and London Book Fair), and a final digital showcase.
According to a release, the program has supported 150 translators working from 37 different languages. Alumni of the program have gone on to win several major awards, including Nichola Smalley, who was twice longlisted for the International Booker Prize and whose translation of Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichý won the 2021 Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize; Reuben Woolley, whose translation of Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov was also longlisted for the International Booker Prize; and Sophie Hughes, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in both 2019 and 2020 for her translations of The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán and Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor.