John Calder Week | Industry Insider – Editing translation

Join us for a panel discussion chaired by Alessandro Gallenzi and Elisabeth Minervini with James Young, Stella Sabin, and Rahul Bery on the topic of editing translated work.

#SoAatHome Industry Insider events – free for all + donation

Our #SoAatHome industry insider events are free for all but with a donation option when registering for the event.

All donations made go towards the Society of Authors’ Access Fund. The fund is to help provide authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats. If you would like to make a donation with your booking, please do so when registering for the event below.

John Calder Week

From 27 – 30 January 2026, we are running a week of events to celebrate the SoA’s new John Calder Translation Prize which was launched in November 2024.

The John Calder Translation Prize is an annual award for translations into English of full-length ambitious, groundbreaking works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000.

The aim of the John Calder Translation Prize is to celebrate new and ambitious translations into English of full-length works (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) which are distinguished by the highly personal and imaginative approach of the authors to their subject. Submissions can be from any language into English.

The week includes:

• 27 Jan | Industry Insider – Editing translation
• 29 Jan | How I write – in conversation with Katharine Halls
• 30 Jan | SoA in Person: Feel Good Friday – London literary tour

Programme

• Welcome, introductions and housekeeping from Alessandro Gallenzi and Elisabetta Minervini (3 mins)
• Panel discussion chaired by Alessandro Gallenzi and Elisabetta Minervini with James Young, Stella Sabin and Rahul Bery (60 mins)
• Comfort break (20 mins)
• Q&A with audience (20 mins)
• Summary and closing comments (2 mins)
• This event will be moderated by Catherine Fuller – Senior Publishing Contracts Advisor, SoA

Send us your questions

If you would like to send questions in advance, email CFuller@societyofauthors.org with ’Editing translation’ in the subject header. We will prioritise questions sent in advance and answer as many as we can from the audience on the day.

#SoAatHome Fundraising Bookshop

Browse our virtual Bookshop.org store featuring books by authors and speakers taking part in the #SoAatHome. When you make a purchase using our affiliate links, a percentage will go to the Society of Authors’ Access Fund, giving authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats.

What will this session cover?

The panellists will discuss the relationship between translators and editors and the route to publication for translated works.

Who is this session for?

This session is for working and emerging translators and anyone with an interest in the editing process for translated literature.

The Line-up

Alessandro Gallenzi

Alessandro Gallenzi is the founder of Hesperus Press, Alma Books and Alma Classics, and the successor of John Calder at the helm of Calder Publications. As well as being a literary publisher with over fifteen years of experience, he is a prize-winning translator, a poet, a playwright and a novelist. His collection of poetry, Modern Bestiary – Ars Poetastrica, was published in 2005 to critical acclaim.

His satirical literary novel, Bestseller, was published in 2010, followed by InterRail in 2012 and The Tower in 2014. His verse translation of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock won the Premio Biblioteca di Monselice special award in 2010. His articles have appeared in many papers and journals, including The Times, The Scotsman and The London Magazine.

Website: https://almabooks.com/alma-author/alessandro-gallenzi/

Elisabetta Minervini

Elisabetta is the co-founder of Alma Books. She is a publisher as well as a cook, and published Mammissima: Family Cooking from a Modern Italian Mamma with Bloomsbury in 2016. She lives in Richmond, London with her husband and children.

Website: https://almabooks.com/alma-author/elisabetta-minervini/

James Young

James Young is the translator into English of The Love of Singular Men and Glória by Victor Heringer (the latter in co-translation with Sophie Lewis). His translation of The Love of Singular Men won the 2024 Jabuti Prize for Best Brazilian Novel Published Abroad and was runner-up for the Society of Authors/Translators Association First Translation Prize, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award John Leonard Prize, and short-listed for the ALTA First Translation Prize.

His translations have also appeared in Words Without Borders, The Stinging Fly and Granta, and he won the 2022 Peirene Stevns translation prize. He is also a writer, and his short fiction has been widely published in literary journals and shortlisted for multiple short story prizes. He is the founder and director of the Hastings Writers Workshop, a creative writing centre established in 2021. 

Rahul Bery

Rahul Bery is a literary translator from Portuguese and Spanish. Recent translations include The Good Nazi by Samir Machado de Machado, Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva and What is Mine by José Henrique Bortoluci. He and his editor Federico Andornino were nominated for the 2021 TA First Translation Award for his translation of Rolling Fields by David Trueba.

Bluesky: @rrrahul.bsky.social | Instagram @pranghul

Stella Sabin

Stella Sabin is co-publisher at Peirene Press. She started at Peirene in 2018 and took over the press with James Tookey in 2022. She is the commissioning editor of over a dozen books, including Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (tr. Jo Heinrich), which won the Dublin Literature Award in 2023, and The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer (tr. James Young), which was awarded the Jabuti Prize for ‘best Brazilian book published abroad’. She has a background in radio production and has made factual documentaries and audiobooks for the BBC and independent clients.

Need to know

Accessibility

• Attendees will have the option to turn on the live transcript, to watch with subtitles
• If you require BSL interpretation for this event, please email events@societyofauthors.org

Before the event

• Once registered, you will be sent a confirmation email with the Zoom link
• If the confirmation email doesn’t arrive in your inbox, please check your junk/spam email folder
• Please add events@societyofauthors.org to your Safe Senders list so you receive our confirmation and reminder emails

During the event

• This online event will take place on Zoom Webinar; you will not be visible on screen but will be able to ask questions via the Q&A function or interact via the chat box
• This event will be recorded but you won’t be on screen
• Attendees have the option to turn on the live transcript
• This event is 90 minutes

After the event

• Hashtags for this event: #SoAatHome & #TranslationPrizes
• You’ll be able to catch the recording on our Vimeo channel

Booking

Please either use the form titled ‘Register – no donation’ or the option of the different ticket options with a donation amount depending on how much you would like to donate towards the Society of Authors Access Fund.