International Translation Day (ITD) celebrates translation, translators and translated literature every 30 September. English PEN and the National Centre for Writing are collaborating to highlight and promote events and activities taking place across the UK in celebration of ITD 2025.
View the programme of events from organisations, publishers, academic institutions, festivals and other organisers here. All events and initiatives are planned, coordinated and delivered by the organiser listed, and further details on each initiative are available on the organiser's website.
Nationwide programme
ESEA Lit Fest
ESEA Lit Fest: On narrative and silence with Khairani Barokka & SJ Kim
20 September 2025, 11am BST, Foyles Charing Cross Road, London
Award-winning writers Khairani Barokka and SJ Kim discuss tricks of language and carving art from the spaces between dominant cultures and institutions, in conversation with novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo.
Literary Translation: the Craft and the Business
Literary Translation: the craft and the business with Ruth Martin
30 September 2025, 6.30pm BST, The Little Green Bookshop, Herne Bay
Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the world of literary translation, and find out exactly how a book makes it from another language into English. Ruth will explore all the challenges of being a translator, from how to deal with jokes, wordplay and swearing, to the economics of publishing translations and the threat of AI. You’ll also get recommendations for the best new books from around the world!
Goethe-Institut London & Institut français du Royaume-Uni
AI Translation Slam 2025: Beyond the Binary
2 October 2025, 6.30pm BST, Goethe-Institut, London
Join us for our AI Translation Slam 2025, which pitches the creative forces of literary translation by humans against AI translation tools. This year, the focus will be on the translation of gender sensitive language from French & German into English. Moderated by Christophe Fricker (Bristol University), with Rebecca DeWald, Jo Heinrich, & Jason Sprague.
Goethe-Institut Glasgow
Translators' Stammtisch
8 October 2025, 6.30pm BST, online
These workshops are aimed at emerging and established literary translators and are organised by the Goethe-Institut Glasgow and hosted by Annie Rutherford and Rebeccad DeWald. Translators get the opportunity to discuss their literary translations-in-progress from any language into English) and receive feedback and suggestions from fellow translators.
The Translators’ Stammtisch is free to attend and open to literary translators of all language combinations. We meet once a month online. Participants should sign up on Eventbrite or email [email protected] to be added to the mailing list. Texts to be discussed (up to 1000 words) can be submitted in advance and will be circulated to all participants. We are a friendly, open and chatty group of international translators and look forward to e-meeting you!
Translator
Translating Journalism: Between Languages, Across Borders with Translator mag
8 October 2025, 6.30pm BST, online
How do we translate the world in all its depth and complexity? Long-form reportage and analysis demand not only accuracy but also the careful transmission of voice, rhythm and nuance. In a moment of intensifying global crises and contested narratives, the act of translating reportage and analysis becomes not only a question of language, but also one of responsibility, representation and power.
This online talk will consider the possibilities – and limits – of translating journalism. What are the ethical and stylistic differences between rendering a piece of journalism versus a work of literature? How can translation counter Anglophone bias and open up new ways of understanding the world?
The Translator magazine editorial team will be joined by translators and contributors from Issue #1, who will reflect on their own experiences of translating reportage. Together, we will explore how global journalism can move across borders without losing sight of voice, clarity or truth.
This talk is open to anyone interested in reading the world differently, whether you speak one language or five.
Speakers from Translator are: Charles Emmerson, Zanta Nkumane, Trà My Hickin.
Off the Shelf
Off the Shelf: Heart Lamp – Banu Mushtaq & Deepa Bhasthi in conversation with Rachel Genn
11 October 2025, 1pm BST, Sheffield Central Library, hybrid
Published by Sheffield based publisher, And Other Stories, Heart Lamp is the winner of the International Booker Prize 2025. In 12 stories, author Banu Mushtaq captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. These portraits of family and community tensions testify to Banu Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women’s rights. Here is your chance to celebrate this acclaimed, prize-winning book as we join author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for a conversation via a live video link from India. Banu Mushtaq is a writer, activist and lawyer in the state of Karnataka, southern India and Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and literary translator based in Kodagu, Southern India.
Rilindja International
Albanian Voices in Translation
1–17 October 2025, online video
Rilindja International presents Albanian Voices in Translation, a short film celebrating rare and out-of-print works from Albanian literature. Actors perform selected excerpts in the original Albanian and in new English translations, bringing these voices to life for UK audiences. The film blends performance, heritage, and translation craft, offering a glimpse into a literary culture seldom heard in English. Available online for the duration of 1 October and 17 October 2025, it will be freely accessible and subtitled in both languages.
