Nine translators win places on U.K. mentorships for 2026/27
Nine early-career translators will spend six months learning how books cross into English.
The U.K. National Centre for Writing has chosen nine translators for its Emerging Translator Mentorships programme for 2026/27, Publishing Perspectives reported on 30 September 2026. Each translator will work one-to-one with an experienced mentor. The focus is literary translation, meaning novels, poetry, plays and other creative writing rather than commercial or technical texts.
The bar for “emerging” is precise. The programme defines an emerging translator as someone who has published no more than one full-length work of literary translation. The 2026/27 cycle is for translators working into English, according to the National Centre for Writing.
The scheme was founded in 2010 by translator, writer and editor Daniel Hahn. The 2026/27 intake is its 17th year.
Those named in the new cohort span six language areas. Sheila Nyholm D’Souza was selected for Danish and will be mentored by Paul Russell Garrett. Hanna Wheeler was selected for Dutch with mentor Jonathan Reeder. Lil Boyce was selected for Italian with mentor Elena Pala.
Tiffany Chang was selected for Korean with mentor Clare Richards. Cheryl Schmitz was selected for Literature from Taiwan with mentor Jeremy Tiang. Aparna Thomas was selected for Languages of India, working from Malayalam into English, with mentor Mohini Gupta.
Each pairing runs for six months of focused development. In practice that means close editorial attention to the translator’s work, plus guidance on the business of publishing in English.
Applications for the 2026/27 round are now closed. Applications for the following 2027/28 round will open on 23 July 2027, according to the Centre’s applications page.
The programme points to last year’s graduates as an indicator of what comes next. Quaid Cey, working in Dutch, was among the 2026 graduates featured in the Centre’s Emerging Translators Showcase 25-26.
What makes this stand out for readers is simple. Most English-language readers never meet a translator. Yet every translated book on a shop shelf passed through one. A mentorship does not guarantee publication. It gives new translators time with someone who has done it before.
