Submissions
Send tips to us
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Seen a long-form article in another language that captivated you? Send us the link or a photo if it’s in print (we love print!).
Heard about a local story everyone’s talking about but that hasn’t appeared in English-language media? Send us a message or short voice note explaining what it is and why it matters where you are.
Recommend to us
We are always on the lookout for great non-fiction articles published in languages other than English that we can summarise for our Dispatches or translate in full for the magazine. These are pieces that get behind the headlines and relate closely to the place where they were written.
We’re open to recommendations from all over the world, from any language, from any kind of publication – online, in print or in other formats – and you don’t have to be a journalist to recommend to us. Just send us what you have found interesting or important. We’ll do the rest.
For summaries, we’re interested in all kinds of writing: long-form journalism, reportage, reviews, first-person narratives, interviews or analysis that gets behind the headlines. Please note that we won’t summarise articles that are less than 1000 words.
For pieces we might translate in full for the magazine, we’re interested in local reportage, long-form journalism, and first-person narratives of 2,000-6,000 words, as well as excerpts from non-fiction books not yet translated into English.
In reviewing these pieces for translation, we will check to ensure that they're not already available in English.
Work with us
We aim to ensure that contributors to Translator are paid fairly, whether they are translators, writers, photographers, or artists. If you are not (yet) a professional writer or translator, there may still be opportunities for us to work together – read on.
Translate for us
We accept translation pitches for non-fiction writing from around the world. We’re looking for great reportage pieces of 2,000-6,000 words, long-form journalism, or other narrative non-fiction, published in a language other than English, in print, online, or in other formats.
Our rates for experienced professional translators are 14 pence per word for the first 3,000 words, and a sliding scale after that.
Write for us
We commission writers for a variety of original short-form pieces and reviews which relate to language and translation. These articles are published across our print magazine and digital offerings. We will pair you with an editor, and the process will involve a couple of rounds of editing.
STREET TALK
These are 400- 800-word original articles for the magazine about what is the hyperlocal story on everyone’s lips in your hometown/ village/ city/ region outside the Anglosphere, that give us a sense of place, time and personality. We welcome pitches from non-professional writers, including in languages other than English. We will work with you on editing and translation.
Here's a recent example of the Street Talk format, about who owns Carnival in Jamaica. Or you can read previous Street Talks in any of our print issues.
If you have an idea, get in touch with us via our dedicated Street Talk email address (streettalk@translatormag.co) and we can send further guidelines. We pay a flat fee of £100.
Reviews
These are short reviews of a newly translated book into English, or of a film, TV series, podcast, festival, or even a performance in another language. We pay £100-200 for reviews of 400-1000 words.
Recent reviews have included Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood by Alexander Voloshin, translated by Boris Dralyuk, and What Am I, A Deer? by Polly Barton. You can read them in Translator Issue #3.
If you have a review you want to pitch, email us at submissions@translatormag.co
Longer-form original articles
We occasionally commission longer-form original and reported articles which engage with language and language politics in interesting ways. We aren’t able to take on many of these, but we are hoping to expand the number of articles of this nature we can produce for online publication.
Previous examples include an interview by Sophia Smith Galer on digitising the Urdu script and a feature by Theo Merz on Russia’s war on minority languages. You can read them in select print issues.
If you have a longer-form original article to pitch, email us at submissions@translatormag.co
Photograph or draw for us
Photo Essay
We commission a photo essay for each paper edition of Translator. We’re looking for photographs that explore a social phenomenon or tell a human story, taken by local photographers outside the Anglosphere, ideally with a close personal familiarity to the phenomenon or story their photographs describe. We’ll pair you with our culture editor to ensure suitable text to accompany your photographs. We pay £300-500.
Previous photo essays have been from Khartoum and Berber, the Gen-Z protests in Nepal and Babur’s Gardens in Kabul.
If you have a photo essay you want to pitch, email us at submissions@translatormag.co
Illustration
We work with illustrators to illustrate a particular article for Translator’s print magazine. If you think your work would be a good fit, you can send over your portfolio and bit more information about your practice to submissions@translatormag.co