Thanks to the generous support of Creative Scotland, we had the pleasure of welcoming Ariadna Pous and Enrique Maldonado Roldán—two accomplished Spanish translators of commercial literature—to our Contemporary and Scottish Literature courses this summer.

A central element of the Fellowship is the opportunity for our translators to share insights into their craft through presentations at our annual Translation Showcase, held each August. This year’s event took place at the University of Edinburgh, and we’re delighted to now share their talks and reflections with those who couldn’t attend in person.

We hope you enjoy their presentations as much as we did, and that you find them as insightful and engaging as we found the conversations on the day.

Ariadna Says:

I am truly grateful for the recognition granted to translators as key actors in the literary industry and I believe this is particularly relevant today, given the threats faced by our profession and the rest of creative fields through poor working conditions and the unregulated use of generative AI.

Among the opportunities currently available to translators, such as residencies and grants, I consider this fellowship at SUISS as a truly unique experience, since it gives us the chance to deepen our knowledge of British and Irish literature, and more specifically Scottish literature. In these courses we worked with a wide range of prominent texts and the expertise of the lecturers provided a really stimulating literary framework and tools to further explore literature in Scotland. Beyond the texts themselves, the lectures and seminars enriched my understanding of critical approaches, and I believe this will directly enhance how I work with my translations and present them to the Catalan audience, as our role as translators increasingly demands this involvement.

As a professional translating into Catalan, I found particularly interesting the parallels that might be drawn between Scottish literary history —and its use of Scots and Gaelic— and my own tradition. In Catalonia we currently have a thriving landscape of works by skilled translators and we have recently translated authors such as Ali Smith, Douglas Stuart and Muriel Spark, among others, but I have become more aware of the significant gaps across various genres: the poetry of the modern Scottish makars, the plays of John McGrath or David Greig, short stories by Jane Galloway or novels by James Robertson and Alisdair Gray, to name only a few. Exploring different aspects of Scottish literature I strongly felt that our own context would be particularly receptive to such works, and I have already identified potential projects and areas of interest to pursue in my work and share with publishers and colleagues.

Enrique says:

As a professional translator, it’s been a privilege and a pleasure to have the
opportunity to devote some weeks to the study of contemporary Scottish and British
literature. The broad spectrum of sensibilities and genres included in the four-weeks
program seems to me crucial to understand a Scottish literary scene as diverse as its
society, far away from the unavoidable cliches that certain nations inevitably have in
other latitudes.

The professional translator not only devotes time to rewriting a particular text,
but also to the selection of works that deserve to be read by foreign readers. From my
perspective, the professional translator is not a passive actor in the industry, but one who
wants to influence it, one who considers their responsibility to bring new voices or new
translated versions to a readership devoid of the language proficiency to read in the
original language. In this sense, the SUISS program has allowed me to devote time to
read the works of contemporary authors, some of them not yet translated into Spanish. I
have expressed my interest in translating their works to some of them and I will try to
persuade Spanish publishers to do so. Specifically I will try to publish in Spanish the
works of Harry Josephine Giles, Lelia Abulela and James Robertson.

But not just the authors studied in the lectures and seminars inspired me for
future translations. The opportunity to spend time in Scotland, and Edinburgh specially,
means the chance to spend time in bookshops, to read and buy the books that may end
being part of my portfolio as translators. And so, authors like Alan Warner, Janice
Galloway, Nan Shepherd and Tom Newlands find their way into my luggage before
flying back home.

Nevertheless, nothing of the aforementioned was so important. What I will
remember in the years to come, the memories that will accompany me are those directly
linked to the lectures and the seminars. Returning to the university after a considerable
length of time is being inspiring, motivating, rejuvenating. The friendships that started
in the classroom, the feeling of learning everyday, the fruitful reflection —that is the
main present SUISS and Creative Scotland gave me this Summer of 2025.

Ariadna Pous is a translator based in Barcelona. She has worked on several literary translation projects in collaboration with renowned publishers to bring voices into the Catalan literary landscape. She has had the privilege of translating works by authors such as Nora Ephron, Sigrid Nunez, Denis Johnson, Peter Burke and Philippe Sands, among others. Currently, she is translating an essay collection by Susan Sontag and a book by Scotland-based author, Kapka Kassabova, whose work she finds inspiring.

Enrique Maldonado Roldan has had the opportunity to translate many Scottish or Scotland-based authors throughout his professional career: (Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport; Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen’s The Library: A Fragile History; Compton Mackenzie’s Whisky Galore; James Boswell’s An Account to Corsica).

Thanks to the generous support of Creative Scotland, we were able to welcome Maria Munoz (Spain) and Petra Pugar (Croatia), two talented translators, to our Contemporary and Scottish Literature courses this summer. As in previous years, a key component of the Fellowship is for our translators to deliver presentations on their practice as part of our Translation Showcase event, which takes place in August. This year the event took place at the University of Edinburgh, and we’re very pleased to be able to share Maria’s and Petra’s presentations here for those that missed the event. We hope you find their presentations as illuminating and entertaining as did.

Petra Says:

The fellowship allowed me to fully immerse myself in the Text and Context program, which proved to be transformative for both my professional journey as a literary translator, and my academic path. The program’s rigorous and stimulating environment enabled me to make final notes for my PhD research on the intermediality of text, space, and image in the work of Alasdair Gray. Engaging with peers and experts in the field, including the SUISS staff, I received insightful feedback that will significantly shape the final stages of my dissertation.

However, perhaps the most fulfilling aspect of my time at SUISS was the opportunity to give a presentation on the challenges and intricacies of translating Douglas Stuart’s novels Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo into Croatian. Sharing my experiences with fellow participants and seeing how my work piques their interest in literary translation was incredibly rewarding on a professional and personal level. The discussions that preceded and followed my presentation opened up new perspectives and underscored the importance of cultural and linguistic exchange in literary translation as an inseparable part of world literature, which I am proud to contribute to.

The SUISS program also provided an exceptional platform for networking and collaboration. I had enriching conversations with mentors and fellow translators from around the world, which have already led to potential future collaborations I am very much looking forward to. Moreover, the program’s focus on both academic rigor and cultural immersion contributed to my continuous exploration of Scotland as a literary, cultural and physical space, which will undoubtedly inform my future translations and scholarly work.

As I move forward in my career, I am committed to promoting Scottish literature in Croatia and the surrounding region, to reach a better cultural understanding that goes beyond surface-level stereotypes. The fellowship has not only enhanced my skills but also deepened and renewed my passion for this endeavour. I look forward to continuing my efforts to introduce more Scottish authors to Croatian readers, contributing to a greater understanding and appreciation of Scotland’s complex and varied literary heritage.

Translating Shuggie Bain

Maria Says:

For 4 weeks, we delved into the intricacies of Contemporary and Scottish Literature, guided by our wonderful lecturers and tutors.

I expanded my knowledge and got introduced to a wide range of authors such as Ali Smith, Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay, Douglas Stuart, Alasdair Gray or Harry Josephine Giles, to name some of my favourites. I also learned about concepts such as the Caledonian Antisyzygy and was marvelled by plays such as The Cheviot, the Stag and The Black Black Oil by John McGrath, which, despite being written decades ago and mainly shedding light over the Highland Clearances, it stood as wildly relevant to me nowadays.

As for the future, I’m planning to use this renovated energy to contact several publishers in Spain. Hopefully, my experience and passion will convince them to bring great Scottish authors closer to Spanish audiences, who have more in common that we could expect. In the past, Spanish publishing houses such as Impedimenta, Capitán Swing, Galaxia, and Automática have successfully signed translation contracts thanks to the Translation Fund administered by Publishing Scotland on behalf of Creative Scotland, so I’m committed to adding more to the list.

To sum up, this was such a rewarding experience which I would recommend to anyone. In an era of individualism and automatism, thank you for bringing humanity, collective effort and the arts into focus. Thank you for considering the role translators play in this, too, and help us bridge the gap between cultures.

Inclusive language in translation

Biographies:

Maria Munoz is a freelance translator from English and French into Spanish specialized in literary and medical translation. She studied Translation and Interpreting at University of Alicante and French literature and translation at University of Aberdeen. She has translated authors such as Jessica Mary Best and Nicola Sanders and is interested in the intersection of translation with queer and gender studies.

Petra Pugar: My translation experience started with contract work for various literary festivals in Croatia and a collaboration with the Croatian National Television as a translator and subtitler of documentaries, films and children’s shows, which provided me with the necessary skills and courage to move on to translating works of literature for the most respectable publishing houses in Croatia, such as Fraktura, Znanje, Vorto Palabra etc. In addition to this, I worked for two and a half years as a literary agent at Corto Literary Agency, representing international agencies and publishers such as Blake Friedmann, Ullstein Verlag, Norstedts and Penguin Random House Spain for the territory of South-East Europe, simultaneously working on the promotion and visibility of Croatian authors abroad by regularly
visiting the most important book fairs, primarily the ones in London and Frankfurt. This experience
broadened my understanding of the publishing industry and brought me out of the academic bubble. It
also presented me with an opportunity for me to network with numerous publishing professionals not
only in Croatia and the region, but in the English-speaking world as well.

I have since become a full-time self-employed translator, but I still maintain those contacts and I have
access to conversations about publishing profiles and selection of titles, which is what, I believe,
makes me an excellent promotor of Scottish Literature in my area. Additionally, as a literary
translator and scholar who has read numerous Scottish authors, I have successfully presented some of
them to my publisher and suggested myself as a translator. I translated Douglas Stuart’s two novels,
but my wish is to achieve a translation of Alasdair Gray, who is my main focus of research, and
whose recent death was a great loss for the world literature. Other authors that deserve a Croatian
translation, and as of yet have little to none (with exceptions such as Ali Smith), are Edwin Morgan,
Janice Galloway, Jackie Kay, and Liz Lochhead.

Thanks to the generous support of Creative Scotland, we were able to welcome Clara Ministral and Maria Pelleta, two talented translators, to our Contemporary and Scottish Literature courses this summer. As in previous years, a key component of the Fellowship is for our translators to deliver presentations on their practice as part of our Translation Showcase event, which takes place in August. This year the event took place at the University of Edinburgh, and we’re very pleased to be able to share Clara’s and Maria’s presentations here for those that missed the event. We hope you find their presentations as illuminating and entertaining as we at SUISS did, with our thanks again to Clara and Maria for sharing their enthusiasm and passion for translation in all its forms.

Clara says:

As a professional literary translator, it was incredibly useful to be granted a more
academic insight into the literary world than the one I might be more typically afforded.
In my experience, that domain can prove somewhat inaccessible to translators so it is
always professionally valuable when these kind of infrequent bridging opportunities
emerge.

Meeting other attending translators (including, of course, my ‘fellow Fellow’
María Pelletta) facilitated much rich conversation, and their diverse backgrounds were
often stimuli to reflective discussion which will surely benefit my professional practice in
due course. In fact, it would be remiss of me to limit my observations solely to the
translators who were present, as so many of the other attendees, tutors and lecturers
were fascinating individuals who really helped generate an enriching and intellectually
curious atmosphere.

Although both courses were great, I especially enjoyed the Scottish Literature one, which
was a fantastic way for me to deepen my rather limited knowledge of Scottish writing. I
feel the course has offered me a wonderful springboard for further exploration of Scottish
authors, several of whom were previously unfamiliar to me, and I look forward to reading
more and exploring further in the coming months and years. Furthermore, I now feel far
more confident and informed in terms of tackling future translation projects which are
either rooted in Scotland or that contain a Scottish dimension. Such opportunities to
broaden one’s worldview are always most welcome for translators in particular.

What Do Translators Actually Do?

Maria says:

I have attended several literary translation workshops and courses online, but the opportunity to broaden my knowledge of literary works and share four weeks with other translators, students, authors and literature teachers was something of immense value both on a personal and a professional level.

Over these four weeks, we read the work of, and were able to meet, several established authors. Harry Josephine Giles, Rachelle Atalla, James Robertson, and A.L. Kennedy regaled us with their presence, reading passages of their work and generously answering our eager questions. These evenings were precious, the atmosphere welcoming and relaxed, and everyone felt privileged to have informal chats with these amazing writers. In my case, I was most looking forward to meeting James Robertson, whose work I intend to translate and show to Spanish readers. I am already working on proposals to translate News of the Dead!

I also presented aspects of translation that would appeal to an international audience like SUISS students. There were many translators present who identified with my description of how to translate tricky cultural references, while the non-translators attendees discovered the process that allows them to read literary works in their own language.

To Translate Presentation

Biographies:

Clara Ministral: I have been a professional English-to-Spanish translator of literary and commercial texts for over 15 years. For much of that time I resided in London, where I also held other positions in the arts sector, primarily in publishing and bookselling. Most importantly, my time in the UK allowed me to develop the linguistic and cultural skills that are essential to achieve excellence as a literary translator, and which I believe would have been impossible to acquire had I stayed in my home country. Now, after a few years back in Spain, I have become deeply aware of how important it is to maintain a physical presence in the countries I translate from, which I see as the only way to stay connected with a linguistic and cultural reality that is constantly evolving, and which is hard to access simply through books or screens. As someone with an increasing interest in what goes on in the periphery and a declining desire to engage with what happens in the centre, in recent years I have turned my attention to Ireland, particularly the North, and I am now embarking on a similar process of exploration of and immersion in Scottish culture and literature, something which I am extremely keen to build on through the SUISS courses.

Maria Pelletta: I am a professional literary translator and Qualified Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. Originally from Argentina I have lived on Skye since 1996. When I first moved to Scotland, I was 35 years old and, after 15 years of teaching in primary education in Argentina,
I decided to embark on a career change. I studied independently for the DipTrans examination of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, obtaining my diploma in 2001. At the same time, my desire to learn more about Scotland led me to undertake a short course in tour guiding for Skye and Lochalsh at the University of Edinburgh, an activity which both complemented my translation work and opened up opportunities to work in heritage and tourism translation. Both professions have allowed me to pursue my passion for Scotland, including its history, its languages, its culture and its literature.

After over 20 years as a translator, the Covid pandemic gave me time and space to reflect on the direction of my career. Having previously published a book translation (Return to Patagonia by the Hebridean author Greta Mackenzie), during lockdown I approached the Scottish author James Robertson regarding the translation of his work into Spanish. The result has been a series of translations from his collection 365: Stories. To date, I have translated 50 of the stories and their publication is currently being pursued by his agent. Both these projects have awakened a renewed interest in Scottish literature and literary translation

The English Speaking Union (ESU) has partnered with the University of Edinburgh through the Scottish Universities International Summer Schools program, also known as SUISS, to provide a variety of courses. These are multi-week courses ideally suited for secondary school teachers. Study literature, creative writing, or theater – or all three!

Here is ESU TLab Scholarship recipient, Tiffany Hunter-Wilson’s, account of her time on the SUISS Theatre & Performance course. Enjoy!

The English Speaking Union (ESU) has partnered with the University of Edinburgh through the Scottish Universities International Summer Schools program, also known as SUISS, to provide a variety of courses. These are multi-week courses ideally suited for secondary school teachers. Study literature, creative writing, or theater – or all three!

Here is ESU TLab Scholarship recipient, Elayne Harrington’s, account of her time on the SUISS Creative Writing course, as well as her travels around Scotland. Enjoy!

Thanks to the generous support of Creative Scotland, we were able to welcome Iftach Brill and Aysegul Demir, two talented translators, to our Scottish Literature course this summer. As in previous years, a key component of the Fellowship is for our translators to deliver presentations on their practice as part of our Translation Showcase event. This year the event took place at the University of Edinburgh, and we’re very pleased to be able to share Iftach’s and Aysegul’s presentations here for those that missed the event. We hope you find their presentations as illuminating and entertaining as we at SUISS did, with our thanks again to Iftach and Aysegul for sharing their enthusiasm and passion for Scottish ballads.

Iftach says:

I took part in the Scottish literature course, in this year’s summer school in Edinburgh, thanks to an Edwin Morgan Translation Fellowship granted to me by Creative Scotland. As a translator from Tel Aviv who had had for many years both a professional and a personal interest in Scotland, it was an opportunity to deepen my acquaintance with Scottish culture and to gain a much more nuanced understanding of its complexities. The lectures and classes, the extensive prior reading of novels and plays which began months before the course, the city of Edinburgh itself at its liveliest time, and above all the people I met at SUISS – everything interrelated to create an intensive learning experience and to provoke thought.

More importantly, maybe, the warm welcome at SUISS made me feel less of an outsider to the culture, and more like a collaborator. During my time in Edinburgh I was able to do some research in the National Library for a future project I’d been planning (a Hebrew translation of a work by James Boswell); but the greater contribution of the course in this respect was in giving me encouragement and strengthening my commitment to pursue this task, as way to become a participant of sorts in this culture.

As a recipient of the fellowship, I needed to present a talk related to translation in the context of Scottish literature. Since the other recipient, Aysegul, was working on a Turkish translation of Scottish ballads, I chose to speak of a classic Hebrew translation of the same texts, done more than 70 years ago, and the influence it had on original Israeli poetry. Not being used to lecturing in English abroad, the task was a bit daunting at first, but everybody was very supportive and the challenge proved fruitful. I made real progress during my stay in Edinburgh, and I think I managed to present some genuine insights that were new to me.

Aysegul says:

My name is Aysegul Demir. I’m an academic in the department of English Literature at Munzur University in Turkey. I did my PhD on Scottish Makar Kathleen Jamie in Turkey (in 2017), the first study of its kind. I am currently a postdoctoral research visitor at the University of Edinburgh (since October 2021), translating Scottish ballads into Turkish. Next semester, I’ll be teaching a Scottish literature course at Munzur University, one of the few courses given in Turkey. All of my studies in the field of Scottish literature have given me the impression that I am a pioneer of Scottish literature and culture in Turkey. You might be wondering how someone from Turkey developed such a passion for Scottish literature and culture. Everything starts with SUISS. In 2018, I found a chance to advance in Scottish literature and to experience the Scottish culture that I first discovered with contemporary Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie through the Scottish Literature Module at Scottish Universities International Summer School (SUISS).

It was hardly a surprise to return here for the second time after opening this magical door once. Then, I decided to convey to Turkey the most significant oral literary tradition of Scotland that has not yet been translated into Turkish, the ballads, and started postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh. Even after ten months in Scotland and at the University of Edinburgh, I couldn’t replicate what I experienced at SUISS. As a result, I decided to be a part of it once more, and the Edwin Morgan Translation Fellowship made it possible.

In short, this scholarship allowed me to broaden my knowledge of Scottish manners and culture, as well as Scottish literature, to make friends from various universities and countries, and to expand my academic network. Meeting Kathleen Jamie during the SUISS author’s night, visiting the Parliament building and meeting Parliament Member Angus Robertson; and seeing Prudencia Hart, one of the performances I most want to see, are among the SUISS experiences that have left the most traces on me.

Biographies:

Iftach Brill is a translator and journalist from Tel Aviv. Born in a Kibbutz in the south of Israel, he worked in a printing house, studied PPE at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and then Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. He translated about ten books from English to Hebrew, mainly in philosophy, history and literary theory, among which David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature. He worked as editor in financial newsrooms and was editor of the fact checking column of a daily Israeli newspaper.

Ayşegül Demir is a Turkish academic in the department of English Literature at Munzur University in Turkey. She did her PhD on Scottish Makar Kathleen Jamie and is currently studying to translate Scottish ballads into Turkish at the University of Edinburgh as a postdoctoral research visitor. She is the recipient of the 2018 Saltire Scholarship and the 2022 Edwin Morgan Translation Fellowship for the Scottish Literature Module at Scottish Universities International Summar School (SUISS). Her research interest focuses on Contemporary Scottish Literature, Scottish Poetry, and Turkish–Scottish Oral Literature.

Written during the first COVID quarantine, “Dried Daisies Sprouting from my Desk” reflects the poet’s battle with her personal demons. It starts by exploring themes of family trauma, depression, and OCD, but it ends by celebrating change within yourself. This confessional coming-of-age book by a promising Greek poet, takes you by the hand and shows you that accepting your darkest moments and growing through them means taking control of your life. It reminds you that even dried daisies, when treated with care, can be beautiful, refreshing, and worthy of admiration.

Sophia-Maria Nicolopoulos is a SUISS alumna and Content and Publishing Editor from Greece. She chooses to see her work as the kind a Greek Ophelia would write had she navigated a world of boundless horror. She writes to make sense of the obscure places where reality meets the surreal. She hates the taste of fresh tomatoes but she loves feta and mozzarella cheese. In her free time, she removes cat hair from her clothes.