Contact
Biography
I am Assistant Professor of Spanish and Translation Studies here in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, and I teach across the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS) and Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies (CTCCS) sections. My research interests include literary translation practice, the circulation of literature in translation, international book fairs and publishing dynamics, sociological approaches to translation, and less translated languages and literatures. These research interests are complemented by a commitment to the creative practice of literary translation: I have translated novels, short stories, children's literature and essays from Slovene into English.
I gained my BA in Hispanic Studies and Russian with East European Studies from the University of Nottingham, before specialising in Slovene language when I was awarded AHRC funding for a Postgraduate Diploma in Slovene. I hold an MA and a PhD in Translation Studies also from the University of Nottingham.
As an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2020-2021), I developed my doctoral research project into 'supply-driven' translation, less translated languages and power and agency in literary translation. I hosted the two-day online symposium, 'Supplying Translation', which brought together scholars and translators of less translated languages to share case studies of source-oriented approaches, and to find commonalities and differences between supply-driven translation activity in a range of cultural contexts. My monograph, Supplying Literary Translation: Slovene Literature and Routes into Translation for 'Small Nations' is forthcoming with Routledge's 'Studies in Literary Translation' series.
Expertise Summary
I'm interested in the mechanics of literary translation systems: the institutions, agents and discourses that shape the production of literary translations, and how these factors determine the body of literature available to readers in English. I'm especially interested in how literatures that are 'less often the source of translation in the international exchange of linguistic goods' (Branchadell 2005) are translated into English, as well as the initiatives that seek to counteract existing power structures in the anglophone publishing industry.
My particular area of expertise lies in Slovene literature, the translation of contemporary Slovene fiction into English after 1991, and the role of language and literature in narratives of Slovene nation-building, as well as a wealth of expertise in professional literary translation, and leading translation workshops.
Teaching Summary
I teach across a range of modules within Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS) and the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies (CTCCS) at undergraduate and… read more
Research Summary
I am currently engaged with a number of research projects that explore intersecting issues of literary translation, soft power, and gender.
Along with Dr Olga Castro (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; University of Warwick) and Dr Laura Linares (University of Limerick), I am working on the collaborative research project, 'Less Translated Literatures and Soft Power: Slovenia and Spain as Guests of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair'. The Guest of Honour (GoH) role at Frankfurt is widely recognised as a key site for literary markets to establish a presence on the international stage; and two of the event's most recent hosts were Spain (2022) and Slovenia (2023). Our research establishes a link between what we might define as the less translated literature of the Slovenian nation-state, and the less translated literatures of the Basque, Catalan and Galician stateless nations, and through comparing the attention paid to the less translated literatures in these two recent GoH programmes, our project looks to develop a more nuanced understanding of the notion of soft power in literary translation. I am guest-editing the forthcoming Special Issue for the international Translation Studies journal Target (Vol. 39, 2027), along with Olga Castro and Laura Linares, on 'The changing landscape of literary translation and/as soft power in the 21st century'.
I am the recipient of an International Collaboration Grant from the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) along with Dr Katja Drnovšek (University of Maribor; PI) and Dr Melita Koletnik (University of Vienna; Co-I) for a project entitled 'Gender Disparities, International Literary Translation Publishing and Languages of Limited Diffusion: Who gets to be published in translation?'. Our funding will cover reciprocal research visits and support fieldwork activities in Slovenia where we will conduct research into the (re)presentation of women writers from Slovenia in the anglophone book market, with a focus on source culture (SC) attitudes towards translation into English, funding structures and regulatory measures that seek to support literary translation activity into English.
In 2020 I founded the Less Translated Languages Network (LTLN), a network for literary translators of languages that are underrepresented on the anglophone book market, in response to industry challenges observed in my research and practice as a literary translator. I have fostered the LTLN over the past four years: I successfully sought funding from the AHRC Communities of Practice fund (£4K; 2023), which I am using to collaboratively build an online platform for the LTL Network. Four UK-based members travelled to the University of Nottingham for a series of planning workshops, which strengthened working relationships and enabled us to explore professional challenges, and potential functions of a collaborative network. Through online profiles, translators are sharing narrative testimonies of their own creative practice, whilst platforming the work that they do as translators and cultural mediators.
Recent Publications
OLIVIA HELLEWELL, 2020. 'Creative Autonomy and Institutional Support in Contemporary Slovene Literature'. In: RAJENDRA CHITNIS, JAKOB-STOUGAARD-NIELSEN, RHIAN ATKIN and ZORAN MILUTINOVIĆ, eds., Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations Liverpool University Press. 109-125
KATHRYN BATCHELOR, LALBILA ARISTIDE YODA, FÉRIDJOU EMILIE GEORGETTE SANON OUATTARA and OLIVIA HELLEWELL, 2019. 'Multilingualism and strategic planning for HIV/AIDS-related health care and communication' Wellcome Open Research. 4(200), OLIVIA HELLEWELL, 2013. 'Translating Dane Zajc's 'Krokar'' Slovene Studies. 35(1-2), 61-77
Published Translations
- Manca G. Renko, 'Are We Having Fun Yet: An Essay on the History of Entertainment and Trauma' (Ljubljana: Look Back and Laugh, 2024)
- Ana Svetel, selected short stories in Will Firth (ed.), Take Six: Six Balkan Women Writers (Sawtry: Dedalus Books, 2023)
- Žiga X Gombač, Adam and his Tuba (New Zork: NorthSouth Books, 2023)
- Goran Vojnović, The Fig Tree (London: Istros Books, 2020)
- Dunja Jogan, Felix After the Rain (London: Tiny Owl, 2020)
- Jela Krečič, None Like Her (London: Peter Owen, 2016)
Translation Residencies
- Slovene Writers' Association Residency for Literary Mediators 2025 - I have been awarded a two-week translation residency from the Slovenian Writers Association and I will spend two weeks in Ljubljana working on a translation of TOXIC, an autofictional novel by Eva Mahkovic.
- British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT), Inaugural Translator in Residence 2020-2021.
Translation Awards and Prizes
- My translation of Žiga X Gombač's Adam and his Tuba was selected by the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) as an Outstanding International Book of 2024. USBBY serves as the U.S. national section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), and the OIB is a top accolade for children's books translated and published in the US.
- Along with translator Will Firth I was awarded a PEN Translates! Award from English PEN, for the publication of Take Six: Six Balkan Women Writers (Dedalus Books, 2023)
- My translation of Felix After The Rain by Dunja Jogan (Tiny Owl, 2020), which was chosen by the Centre for Literary in Primary Education (CLPE) as one of their best books of 2020.
- In January 2019 I was awarded first place in Asymptote Journal's Close Approximation Translation Contest (fiction category) for my translation of Katja Perat's The Masochist. The judges commented:
"Olivia Hellewell's first-prize winning translation of Katja Perat's The Masochist from the Slovenian won me over with its vivid and sustained feat of voice, part bitterness, part bons mots [...] Novels of ideas are so often stillborn at premise, but Hellewell's faith in this ingenious and singular character makes her spring full-fledged from the dark wood of folktale into difficult European modernity."
- In 2019 I was awarded a PEN Translates! Award from English PEN for my translation of Felix After the Rain (Tiny Owl, 2020)
- In 2018 I was awarded a PEN Translates! Award from English PEN for my translation of The Fig Tree (Istros Books, 2020)
Press
- Boyd Tonkin, 15 Dec 2020. 'Goran Vojnović: The Fig Tree review - falling apart together as Yugoslavia splits', Arts Desk.
"Vojnović writes with a fluency and energy that moves adroitly between tumbling inner monologues and startlingly well-observed set-pieces [...] His changes of scene, period and mood find a superbly skilled advocate in Olivia Hellewell. Her agile, well-paced and thoroughly engaging translation cleverly hints, as well, at the verbal interplay of Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian and Bosnian idioms that mark these characters' differences - and their similarities."
- Ronan Hession, 05 Dec 2020. 'Tender truths, delicately woven', Irish Times.
"The writing has an extemporised fluency to it, and in this graceful translation by Olivia Hellewell, the long sentences are effortless to read [...] A consummate novel that explores its subject with depth and sensitivity, The Fig Tree is one of the best books of the year."
- Paul Scraton, 08 January 2021. 'Not all stories are for sharing: Goran Vojnović''s multigenerational novel of gaps and silences', TLS.
"Goran Vojnović's The Fig Tree (Figa, 2016) is a gentle, quiet, emotionally powerful novel concerned with memory, families and the stories we tell each other [...] Vojnović's thoughtful and often beautiful prose has been well served by his translator, Olivia Hellewell, whose short introduction provides important context."
I teach across a range of modules within Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS) and the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies (CTCCS) at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
At undergraduate level:
- I convene and teach on the final year SPLAS module Translation, Power and Gender in the Spanish Speaking World (MLAC3191)
- I am project supervisor for Spanish-language translation projects on MLAC3152 Translation Project
- I am co-convenor of, and Spanish seminar tutor on, Contemporary Translation Studies (MLAC2158)
- I am Spanish seminar tutor for Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Studies (MLAC1089)
- I teach on first year SPLAS module Literature in Spanish (MLAC1062) with a focus on the short story form
In previous years I have taught Spanish language to beginners and post-A-Level students at Levels 1 & 2 (MLAC2085; MLAC1060; MLAC2059).
At postgraduate taught level, I teach or supervise on:
- MLAC4101 Practical Translation
- MLAC4105 Translation for Publishing Markets (available from 2026)
- MLAC4029 Target Translation Project
Other Translation Teaching
- In July 2019, I taught at the British Centre for Literary Translation's Summer School of Translation and Creative Writing, offering a week-long Slovene-English translation workshop to translators
- In July 2021, I designed and lead a multilingual translation workshop at the BCLT's Summer School, which focused on supporting translators of so-called 'less translated' languages.
Teaching Qualifications
I am an Associate Fellow of Advance HE (AFHEA).
For the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE), I have successfully completed:
- EDUC4263 Curriculum Design & Assessment in HE
- EDUC4261 Teaching and Learning in Higher Education