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BCLT Translators-in-Residence

The British Centre for Literary Translation offers two BCLT translation residencies every year for UK-based literary translators. The residencies are for 4 months, one day per week.

Applications are now OPEN for our 2027 Translators-in-Residence scheme, to run from 1 February 2027 to 31 May 2027.

The BCLT residencies are designed to be a collaboration between the translators-in-residence and the BCLT, whose main activities focus on the promotion of literary translation both as a professional activity and an academic discipline. We will work with the chosen translators to shape the role in accordance with their individual interests and skills. The residencies give the translators the opportunity to explore an area of literary translation and language that fascinates them, as well as the precious time to translate in a supportive environment.

During their time with the BCLT, translators contribute to the Centre’s programme of public events, including literary translation workshops, research seminars, and symposia. They work closely with BCLT staff to enhance and expand the Centre’s activities, and are encouraged to seek opportunities for collaboration with research staff, graduate students, and the wider community of literary translators, including those on the MA in Literary Translation. Residents often organise readings, talks, or events related to translation to foster engagement and discussion.

As part of their residency, each translator writes a monthly blog post reflecting on their experience at the BCLT. They also lead at least one tutorial or workshop for students on the MA in Literary Translation, sharing professional insight and creative practice. Finally, Translators in Residence are invited to explore opportunities to work with the translation archive at the British Archive for Contemporary Writing, housed in the UEA Library.

A stipend of £3,200.00 is available as remuneration for each residency, intended to cover any travel and accommodation costs incurred during the residency. There will also be a small budget to support developing activities. This stipend may be subject to tax.

Apply by 23.59 (GMT) on Monday 2 November 2026

Find out more and apply

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BCLT translators-in-residence will:

work with the BCLT in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, UEA, for one day a week (excluding the Spring break), for four months, as follows, 1 February 2027 to 31 May 2027. The residencies can be flexible in terms of whether they are in-person on campus each week or virtually. However, we would expect each translator to come to campus at least once per fortnight (or equivalent) during the residency.
Contribute to the programme of public events offered by the BCLT, which includes literary translation workshops, as well as research seminars and symposia, in order to extend and enhance the BCLT’s programme, working in conjunction with BCLT staff.
Seek opportunities for engagement with research staff and graduate students within the School and Faculty more widely, as well as the community of literary translators on the MA in Literary Translation and beyond by organising readings and events related to literary translation.
Write blogs about the experience of the residency at the BCLT to be published on the NewWriting.net website

As translator-in-residence at the BCLT you may also be expected to:

Lead a student tutorial / workshop for the MA in Literary Translation students at UEA
Seek opportunities to work with the translation archive at the British Archive for Contemporary Writing, housed in the UEA Library

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Person Specification

It is essential for each resident:

To be a practising literary translator, working with any language(s), based in the UK, and with a project currently in progress
To have a keen interest in and enthusiasm for the process of translation and cross-cultural dialogue
To be able to work independently, as well as in a team
To have excellent communication skills (both verbal and written)
To have an interest in research in literary translation studies, with a focus on making a contribution to the BCLT’s research programme
To have an interest in the professional development of literary translators

It is desirable for each resident to have:

Some experience of leading workshops
Some experience of publishing written and online content

Entitlement to Work in the United Kingdom

If you are shortlisted for interview, you will be asked to bring to interview original documentary evidence of permission to work in the UK in line with a list of acceptable documents which we will provide to shortlisted candidates when invited for interview. Please DO NOT provide this with your application.

These residencies are not eligible for sponsorship under Tier 2 and non-EEA workers must hold, or obtain, permission to work in the UK which would allow them to take up one of these posts without requiring a Certificate of Sponsorship.

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How to apply

Please send the following documents:

your CV
a covering letter explaining why you are interested in becoming a translator-in-residence at the BCLT (no more than 400 words)
a proposal (not more than 300 words) outlining what ideas and activities you would plan to pursue during your time as translator-in-residence

Please send your application by 23.59 (GMT) on Monday 2 November 2026 by email to: bclt@uea.ac.uk

Interviews are likely to take place online on Monday 7 December 2026.

My time as Translator in Residence granted me space to think creatively about connections between my translation work and my research; it offered a platform from which to hold conversations and to build working partnerships, and most importantly, I think, it carved out a regular, financially supported portion of time which I could dedicate to doing the thing I love to do the most: translating

- Olivia Hellewell, Translator in residence 2020-21

Discover more in this video

Read blog posts from BCLT Translators-in-Residence on newwriting.net

Meet the 2026 BCLT Translators-in-Residence

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Rosalind Harvey

Rosalind is a literary translator and writer. She has worked on books by many prominent Spanish-language writers, including Juan Pablo Villalobos, Héctor Abad Faciolince, Elvira Navarro and Enrique Vila-Matas; her translation of Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize and was the winner of the 2025 Jan Michalski Prize. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Arts Foundation Fellow, and a founding member of the Emerging Translators Network. She is based in Coventry, and is currently writing a creative non-fiction book that examines literary translation through a personal, psychotherapeutic lens.

Rosalind's project: "My current project is a work of creative non-fiction about literary translation which combines memoir and industry critique and uses ideas around attachment and relational psychotherapy as lenses with which to examine how and why we translate. During my residency, I plan on elaborating a playful, personal theory of 'relational translation' by using the British Archive for Contemporary Writing and having conversations with staff and students about how they relate to their work on a textual and an emotional level. I will also deliver a workshop for students called ‘The Good-enough Translation: Productive Doubt and Translating Securely,’ using Donald Winnicott’s notion of the ‘good-enough parent’ to help us think about balancing doubt with security in order to translate more effectively"

Rosalind reflects on her time at BCLT in this interview

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Charlotte Whittle

Charlotte Whittle is a writer, editor, and literary translator whose work has appeared in The Literary Review, Los Angeles Times, Guernica, Electric Literature, BOMB, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. Her translation of Norah Lange's People in the Room was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the Society of Authors First Translation Prize. She has received two PEN Translates awards and has translated novels by contemporary Spanish and Latin American authors such as Jorge Comensal and Elisa Victoria. For several years, she edited bilingual editions of Latin American poetry and ran cartonera bookmaking workshops at Cardboard House Press. Her most recent translation is Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World, the international bestseller by Irene Vallejo, for which she won the 2023 QSSI Translation Prize. She holds degrees from Oxford, Brown, and UEA, and divides her time between England and New York.

Charlotte's project: Do we write translations or do we make them?’ asks writer-translator Kate Briggs. Translators are increasingly encouraged to view ourselves as writers. But what is the nature of the relationship between translation and writing as practices? When should we describe translation as writing, and when might writing be a kind of translation? What kind of alchemy occurs when someone combines them? How do literary translators view the effect of their translation work on their writing, and how does their writing influence their work as translators? As BCLT Translator in Residence, Charlotte is exploring the relationship between translation and writing through interviews with dual practitioners of writing and literary translation; she is also creating workshops that explore this relationship through reflection and hands-on exercises. What can writers and translators learn from each other? How can the questions above be used to shape thought-provoking and generative workshops that foster cross-disciplinary practices?

Previous BCLT Translators-in-Residence

2020-21: Olivia Hellewell and William Gregory (October 2020-January 2021).

2022: Sawad Hussain and Laura McGloughlin (February-May 2022).

2023: Jen Calleja and Jayasree Kalathil (February-May 2023).

2024: Kari Dickson and Nariman Youssef (February-May 2024).

2024: Ian Giles was a BCLT Translation Fellow in 2024 and worked with the British Archive for Contemporary Writing at UEA to research the Patricia Crampton archive.

2025: Paul Russell Garrett and Annie Rutherford (February- May 2025)

2026: Rosalind Harvey and Charlotte Whittle

2026: Daniel Hahn was a BCLT/BACW Archive Fellow in 2026 and worked with the British Archive for Contemporary Writing (BACW) and BCLT's Tom Boll to create resources for students and researchers to use his translation archives, which are held at UEA.

Our Translators in Residence meet regularly with BCLT's Cecilia Rossi to discuss questions surrounding literary translation. These discussions have resulted in collaborative blog posts that can be viewed on the NewWriting.net website.