About Our Work

In Other Words is a translation-focused research group and roaming library. Our programmes and events showcase writing in translation, and explore the critical, political and cultural aspects of moving the written word between languages and contexts. 

We started life as a tiny bookshop selling translated works out of an old Edinburgh Police Box during the Fringe Festival of 2022. The passion project of three booksellers Kate McNamara, Claudia Marzollo and Georgia Katakou, our tiny shop offered carefully selected works in translation, alongside critical writing about translation. We prioritised smaller presses and strove to include non-hegemonic languages. Today, you can find our curated selection of translated works and writing about translation at Tills (in Edinburgh’s Southside), and at Tills & Company (in Portobello).

Alongside our curated selection of translated literature, we also showcase writing about translation: essays about the pleasures and challenges of translating; writing on the interwoven nature of translation and imperialism; and memoirs on a life spent engaged in literary translation. 

Since 2022, we have expanded our work to include research seminar series ‘The Translation Table’, hosted in Edinburgh and Florence, and have recently launched our ‘Talking with Translators’ series of critical and reflective interviews with leading practitioners. 

Over the years, In Other Words has become our attempt to think through what it means to translate and to be translated; what worlds the act of translating can open up and what power dynamics are at play in this process.

We are always open to collaboration, participation, or any translation chat! Just get in touch!