Mind Your Language! Jan Carson & Clara Ministral in conversation

Writers and their translators often work closely together to bring about the finest possible translations. What can these exchanges bring to a translation? Who benefits? Can it change the way a writer approaches their practice? Is collaboration of this kind especially relevant for writers on this island? 

In partnership with Literature Ireland, this event is for anyone who is interested in words and how they travel.

Due to unforeseen circumstances we have changed the day and time of this event. It was previously Saturday 7 June at 4.00pm. New day/time is 5pm Sunday 08 June. 

Clara Ministral studied Translation and Comparative Literature in Madrid and London and has been translating fiction and non-fiction from English to Spanish for over fifteen years. She has translated works by Louise Kennedy, Rónán Hession, Colin Bateman, Rebecca Solnit and John Haines, among others. During that time, she has also held other positions in the arts sector, both in the UK and in Spain, primarily in publishing and bookselling. Ever since discovering and then translating Jan Carson’s novel The Fire Starters, Clara has been a keen proponent of Irish literature in Spain, with a particular interest in the North, and currently runs Wheeker Books, a project intended to introduce Northern Irish works to Spanish-speaking publishers and audiences.

Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday (UK) in April 2024 and Scribner (US) in July 2024. Her writing has been aired on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and RTE. She is the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast 2025 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first stage play, an adaptation of the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit, was produced by Replay Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in 2025. Her next novel, Few and Far Between, is forthcoming in early 2026.

Literature Ireland brings the finest of Irish literature in the best possible literary translations to readers around the world. It does this by awarding translation grants to publishers, by hosting literary translators in Ireland, and by representing Irish writers at international events, book fairs and festivals.

A not-for-profit organisation, Literature Ireland (known as Ireland Literature Exchange until 2016) is funded by Culture Ireland and the Arts Council Ireland. Operating since 1995, Literature Ireland has funded the translation of over 2,500 works of Irish literature into 58 languages around the world.