donal mclaughlin
on & off the pageAbout Donal McLaughlin
Born in Derry in 1961, but resident in Scotland since 1970, Donal McLaughlin is a freelance writer and translator (from German, mainly).
Scottish PEN’s first écrivain sans frontières, a recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award and a former Hawthornden Fellow, Donal has also represented the City of Glasgow in both Berne (Scottish Writing Fellow) and Nuremberg (Hermann Kesten Fellow).
Known for his short stories, a number of which have already appeared in translation, Donal published his first collection – an allergic reaction to national anthems & other stories – in September 2009. It was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award in 2010, and also nominated for the inaugural Readers’ Best First Book Award of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Donal has completed a first novel – and a second collection of stories is well under way.
His translation work includes: collaborating with Chris Dolan on a stage version of Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader; Shards, a bilingual edition of the poetry of Stella Rotenberg (with Stephen Richardson); and over 100 writers for the New Swiss Writing anthologies (2008 – 2011). He has recently translating three books by Urs Widmer.
Donal has also edited selections of contemporary writing from Slovenia (with Janice Galloway), Latvia and Scotland.
He features both as a writer and as a translator in Best European Fiction 2012 (Dalkey Archive, USA).
“frighteningly talented”
Metro (Scotland)
*****
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