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isabeltranslates.bsky.social
isabeltranslates
@isabeltranslates.bsky.social
Translator of Czech, Slovak, German & French into English. Literary translator of genre & other fiction, & occasional non-fiction. European, wordsmith, word nerd, foodie, reader, yogi & chocoholic. Childless not by choice. New Glaswegian. She/her. 🦔
Pinned
A year in reading, 2026!

The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Alma Whittaker thirsts for knowledge. She has the money & social position to pursue it, & this desire takes her from Pennsylvania to Tahiti, then Amsterdam. An incredible book that may be my book of the year already!

💙📚
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1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 306: U Zátiší, built in 2007.
February 10, 2026 at 8:34 PM
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Buy your hard copies online from publishers or @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social
Audio books from your library app or @libro.fm
Ebooks from your library app or Kobo or direct from publishers
2nd hand from Biblio, Oxfam or World of Books
February 10, 2026 at 11:48 AM
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Everybody knows that Pupper just won Downhill Gold
February 10, 2026 at 1:27 PM
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February 10, 2026 at 2:54 PM
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Something compelled me to make this
February 10, 2026 at 10:57 AM
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Don't buy books on Amazon
Don't publish through Amazon
Amazon is reportedly preparing to launch a marketplace for publishers to sell their content to firms offering AI products www.reuters.com/business/ret...
February 10, 2026 at 11:30 AM
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February 10, 2026 at 12:43 PM
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London Book Fair starts in a month's time, and I'm getting ready for it. I already have a few appointments, and I'm waiting for a number of #publishers to come back to me and say, yes, they'd love to meet me and to publish every book I want to #translate.

+
February 9, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Post a banger not in English:

(If you want to get your Czech friends onto the dancefloor, this will do it!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaMq...
February 10, 2026 at 10:25 AM
Full support from every translator out there, I suspect!
February 10, 2026 at 10:04 AM
None whatsoever!
February 10, 2026 at 10:04 AM
I might have just lost a client forever by telling them that EUR 0.06 per word was "way too low".

I provide a professional service and I expect to be paid professional rates. This is not unreasonable.

Some clients aren't worth keeping!

#xl8 🌐
February 10, 2026 at 9:20 AM
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1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 305: V Zátiší, built in 1925.

It was looking a bit slippery when I was round here, so here you can see the street at the end, rather than a street sign.
February 9, 2026 at 4:39 PM
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Budapest was created out of the cities of Buda and Pest (and the oft-forgotten Óbuda). The place-name Pest likely comes from a Slavic word meaning 'oven, furnace' – compare Slovak pec.

I find it strange that one of the cities had the alternative German name Ofen (literally 'oven'), but it was Buda!
February 9, 2026 at 6:57 PM
I've also got a hard-hitting non-fiction novel about human trafficking, a heartbreaking novel about what it means to be a mother, a story about small-town teenagers who try to raise a demon, and a kidlit book about trees and the interconnectedness of the natural world. Among other things...
February 9, 2026 at 4:46 PM
I may have to chase them, and indeed, adjust my expectations a little... but if you're a publisher, and you'd be interested in an incredible #crimefiction series, or a funny #political novel, or a #kidlit book about fruit & vegetables that come alive... my DMs are open.

#literarytranslation #xl8 💙📚
February 9, 2026 at 4:34 PM
London Book Fair starts in a month's time, and I'm getting ready for it. I already have a few appointments, and I'm waiting for a number of #publishers to come back to me and say, yes, they'd love to meet me and to publish every book I want to #translate.

+
February 9, 2026 at 4:34 PM
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imagine being alive in this world and only wanting to know one language, what the fuck, boring
February 9, 2026 at 3:59 AM
As far as we know you always look like this!
February 8, 2026 at 8:35 PM
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1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 304: Československého exilu, built in 1979.
February 8, 2026 at 8:04 PM
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1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 303: Pod Lysinami, built in 1991.
February 7, 2026 at 8:13 PM
We've got a special Sunday treat for you! Here's Antonella Lettieri reading from THE DUKE, a sweeping feat of literary imagination that asks some big twenty-first-century questions about our relationships with privilege, the past, the natural world, and each other. Enjoy!
Antonella Lettieri reads from Matteo Melchiorre's THE DUKE (Foundry Editions, 2025n
Outside Vallorgàna, a tiny, isolated village high in the foothills of the Dolomites, the ‘Duke’ lives in the villa of his aristocratic ancestors. The last in the centuries-old line of the Cimamontes,…
youtu.be
February 8, 2026 at 7:53 PM
I hope you enjoy it! Well, enjoy is possibly the wrong word, it's pretty grim, but it's compelling! There are 4 books in the series and so far I've read 2...
February 8, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Literary translator pals??

#xl8 🌐 #literarytranslation
Another interview series that's on the Big Bearded Bookseller blog is the Translator Q&A, there are three interviews up there but I'm always looking for more

#translation #BookSky #BookTranslation

bigbeardedbookseller.uk/questions-fo...
February 8, 2026 at 2:54 PM
The Foreign Girls, by Sergio Olguín, tr. Miranda France.

2 European backpackers are found murdered, ritually it seems, after attending a high society party. Unfortunately for the murderer, they were friends with investigative journalist Verónica Rosenthal, who sniffs a cover-up...
#translatedlit 💙📚
February 8, 2026 at 2:45 PM