Literary Translation Masterclass

The Master Class “LITERARY TRANSLATION” is an intensive and exclusive one-week course in Portuguese to English and English to Portuguese literary translation conducted by leading figures in the field, each of whom has published distinguished and widely acclaimed translations.

     · The number of students will be strictly limited to 12 per workshop (giving a total of 24).

     · Potential students will need to be fluent in both English and Portuguese and to have already gone a certain distance in the field of translation.

     · The course is principally intended for professors and researchers in the area of Portuguese, teachers and advanced students of translation and translators.

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Course Structure

The course will consist of two workshops and each workshop will have 5 sessions of 4 hours each. In addition there will be a series of lectures/ seminars, given by distinguished translators, which all the students will attend.


WORKSHOP A (English to Portuguese),  will be led by Margarida Vale de Gato, whose excellent translation of Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad was launched at the Luso-American Cultural Commission in September 2010 as part of their celebration of Twain’s Centenary and who is widely recognized as the best of the younger generation of Portuguese translators.


WORKSHOP B (Portuguese to English) will be lead by Margaret Jull Costa, who translates the works of José Saramago and António Lobo Antunes and is currently considered to be the top translator of Portuguese fiction into English.

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The LECTURE/ SEMINAR sessions will be conducted by:

   · Frederico Lourenço (who received the Prémio D. Diniz da Casa de Mateus and the Grande Prémio de Tradução do Pen Clube Português e da Associação Portuguesa de Tradutores for his verse translation of Homer), 

   · Isabel Pedro dos Santos (an award winning translator and a professor on the translation course at Faculdade de Letras Universidade de Coimbra),

   · Manuel Portela (who has translated Blake, Yeats and Beckett and who produced the first unabridged Portuguese translation of Tristram Shandy) and

   · Richard Zenith (whose version of Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet  is justly celebrated and who is the best translator  of Portuguese poetry into  English). 

Director:                              
Stephen Wilson

Executive Director:
Filomena Marques de Carvalho

Director WORKSHOP A:            
Margarida Vale de Gato

Director WORKSHOP B:            
Margaret Jull Costa

Seminar Leaders:                    
Frederico Lourenço 
Isabel Pedro dos Santos 
Manuel Portela  
Richard Zenith 

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Class Schedule

Download the Class Schedule.


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Fees and Payments

· The fee includes accommodation, breakfast, luncheon and coffee-breaks, course materials, cultural programme and assistance throughout the programme.
· The participants can choose between:
    · Accommodation in a student’s residence - 1000€
    · Accommodation at the Hotel TRYP - 1200€


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Cancellation policy

· For cancellations by 18 May --- No charge
· For cancellations between 19 May  and 5 June --- 50% of registration fee charged
· For cancellations after 6 June --- Full fees charged


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Application Form

To apply for the course, please download, complete and return the Application Form.



Download the Flyer.

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