Translator, journalist, lecturer

Spanish, Catalan, English, Italian, French.

I studied Translation and Interpreting (Autonomous University of Barcelona, 1991) and Journalism (Pompeu Fabra University and University of Leeds, 1994) and since 1989 I have worked as a translator, while also reporting and lecturing. In 2017 I won the Esther Benítez Award.

I have translated over 400 titles, alone or in collaboration with other colleagues. I focus on fiction, essays, graphic novels and illustrated books. I am also a member of Barcelona Kontext, a team of translators who specialise in exhibition projects and art books.

I write about translation for publications such as Vasos Comunicantes, Estudios de Traducción, Panacea and El Trujamán at Centro Virtual Cervantes. I was co-editor of Dos.Dos magazine and I have contributed to Out, El País, El Temps and Granta en Español.

I started teaching in 1992 at the University of the West Indies and since 2012 I have been a lecturer on the Master’s Degree in Literary and Audiovisual Translation at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. I have given numerous workshops and talks on different aspects of literary and creative translation.

Fiction and Non-fiction

Over the years, I have translated contemporary authors such as Tom Wolfe, Doris Lessing, Andrea Camilleri, Chuck Palahniuk, Paolo Giordano, Bruce Chatwin, Roberto Saviano and Toni Morrison, and also classics by Vita Sackville-West, Saki, Emilio Salgari, Thomas Hardy, Gianni Rodari, John Steinbeck, Carlo Collodi, Oscar Wilde, Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling and Albert Camus.

I work for publishing houses large and small, such as Lumen, Salamandra, Galaxia Gutenberg, Sajalín, Sexto Piso, Finestres, Nórdica, Comanegra, Anagrama, Minúscula, Gustavo Gili, Ediciones Invisibles, Navona, Turner, Libros del Zorro Rojo, Edicions 62, :Rata_ and Blackie Books.

Prizes, Fellowships and Residencies

In 2017 I won the Esther Benítez Award (ACE Traductores) for my translation of Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child (Lumen). In 2011 my annotated translation of  Rudyard Kipling‘s Kim (Juventud) received a Banco del Libro award for the best YA book in translation. In 2009 I translated William Bee‘s Beware of the Frog (Juventud), which won the Premi Llibreter for the best illustrated book of the year.

I have received fellowships and grants to prestigious international programmes such as the Banff International Literary Translation Centre in the Canadian Rockies, the Bogliasco Foundation on the Ligurian coast, the Chalet Mauriac in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the Collège International des Traducteurs Littéraires in Arles and Übersetzerhaus Looren in Switzerland. I have also been in residence at the Casa delle Traduzioni in Rome and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Gotland.

Assets of the Trade

Translation is an exciting undertaking that satisfies many a curiosity, but perhaps what I like most about this profession is:

Team Work
Playing with Language
Editing, Editing, Editing
Being Able to Read Slowly
Researching and Learning
Working Wherever I Choose

Graphic Novels

I fondly remember my first professional translation, in 1989: V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. In the world of comics and graphic novels, I have translated some of the most significant authors from the second half of the twentieth century, such as Guido Crepax, Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns, Jean-Michel Charlier, Howard Cruse, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius.

I have also translated works by some of the current stars, such as Marjane SatrapiIgort, Joe Sacco, Zerocalcare, Giorgia Marras, Nine Antico, Edward Ross, David B., Nicolas de Crécy, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Greg Pak and Tom Gauld. And also by other creators who have ventured into this field, such as Chuck PalahniukDarren Aronofsky and Jay Asher.

Short Stories

The first text I ever translated was a short story by E. M. Forster, thanks to a wonderful teacher who encouraged me to delve into this world. Since then, over the years, I have translated stories by authors such as James Baldwin, Erskine Caldwell, Italo Cavino, Thomas Hardy, Grazia Deledda, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Terry Jones, Jack London, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Susan Sontag, Mark Twain and H. G. Wells for different publishers. And lately I have been lucky enough to translate Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, Rebekah Frumkin and Zadie Smith for Granta en Español.

 

Illustrated Books

I translate a lot of illustrated books for children, into both Spanish and Catalan, for publishers such as Kalandraka, Flamboyant, Kireei, Montena, Lata de Sal, La Locomotora and Juventud. Titles include classics by Jim Flora, Ezra Jack Keats, Terry Jones, Beatrix Potter, Gianni Rodari and Tomi Ungerer.

Associations

I am very interested in professional associations and all the work they do. At present I am a member of several committees at the Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia (APTIC), having been the Association’s Chair, and I have joined the Translation for Publishing Houses and Copyright Standing Committee at the International Federation of Translators (FIT), as well as Vértice Cómic at Red Vértice. I am also a member of ACE Traductores, ICOM and CEDRO.

My Coming Titles

Translations somewhere between half-baked and ready to be served.

Some marvellous clients

Clientes

Clientes

Clientes

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