Apr 11

Apr 11 2025 Emerging Literary Translators Anthology now available – with a translation from Faroese

Last August, the National Centre for Writing announced its 2024/25 mentorship programme for literary translators that included a mentorship for translators of Faroese into English. NCW describes the mentoring programme, founded by Daniel Hahn in 2010, as aiming to develop successive new cohorts of literary translators into English, particularly for languages whose literature is currently under-represented in English translation. Over a period of six months, the programme matches experienced translators with emerging translators to work together on practical translation projects. The mentor advises the mentee with a view to developing the mentee’s craft, while working on a chosen text or texts. For the 2024/25 programme, translator Marita Thomsen mentored Berlin-based American translator Bradley Harmon in translating Faroese literature into English.

Bradley Harmon is a writer, scholar of Nordic and German literature, film and philosophy and a literary translator from primarily Swedish, and increasingly also German, Norwegian, Danish – and Faroese. He debuted in 2024 with his translation of Katarina Frostenson’s poetry collection The Space of Time, with forthcoming books including Monika Fagerholm’s novel Who Killed Bambi? and Lív Maria Róadóttir Jæger’s 2020 poetry collection I Write on Wet Paper (fa. Eg skrivi á vátt pappír).

Marita Thomsen is a UK-based Faroese translator and conference interpreter, who has years of experience in translating works by Faroese authors into English, including Jógvan Isaksen, Sólrún Michelsen, Bárður Oskarsson, Beinir Bergsson and Sissal Kampmann.

For the mentoring programme, Bradley Harmon focused primarily on translating Jens Pauli Heinesen’s 1973 epic novel Frænir eitur ormurin into English. The political novel moves elements from the Sjúrðar kvæði (the Faroese ballads of the legendary hero Sigurd) into a modern Faroese setting in a story about the artist’s search for freedom in a totalitarian society.

Yesterday, on 10 April, the mentees showcased their work from the 2024/25 programme following the release of the 2025 anthology, available for download HERE. During the pre-recorded live stream, Bradley Harmon introduced himself, Heinesen’s book and his work, before reading an excerpt of his English translation. The anthology includes a two-page excerpt form the first chapter of Frænir eitur ormurin, as well as an introduction by Harmon and his contact details. The anthology also includes the translation work by the 8 other mentees in the programme and a foreword.

Earlier this year, FarLit approved a sample translation grant for Harmon’s continued work on translating Frænir eitur ormurin. We wish him góðan arbeiðshug, as we say in Faroese!

The Emerging Literary Translators 2024/25 mentorship programme was supported by Arts Council England, British Centre for Literary Translation, FarLit, Italian Cultural Institute, Lithuanian Cultural Institute, Literary Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), National Arts Council for Singapore, Polish Cultural Institute London, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Society of Authors and the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities at UCLA.