The various paintings that depict Bible translator Saint Jerome inform the clichéd image of the literary translator as weltfremd: with no bills to pay, no deadlines to meet, no clients to satisfy, Jerome labours away by candlelight in his unheated room, pleasing only himself and his God. The realities of the modern literary translator and the preoccupations of Literary Translation Studies are far from this image. Today literary translators self-describe as cultural entrepreneurs and activists; they are as busy off the page as they are on it. Literary Translation Studies (LTS) enquires into the publishing industry, into issues of representation, diversity and cultural exchange in the global book market; it promotes translation as a tool for self-expression and global citizenship; it trains emerging translators to work creatively.

Chantal Wright will give examples of LTS at work in research, public engagement and the classroom. The UK research project Changing the Landscape: Diversity and Translation Fiction in the UK Publishing Industry brings together a network of translators, publishers, non-profits and academics to address challenges to diversity in the publishing industry. The Translators in Schools project, currently being developed for the Swiss context, places translators in classrooms to develop children’s literacy and global citizenship. Finally, using examples from Kim de l’Horizon’s Blutbuch (2022), she will show how literary translation helps us to engage with societal issues such as the gender debate, and trains the skills needed to creatively and sensitively post-edit machine translation output.