BCBF Translators Café

Translators Cafè 2025 - the speakers

Damiano Abeni is an epidemiologist and conducts intensive clinical research. He has been translating American poetry since 1973 and collaborates with numerous publishing houses and literary magazines. He has been a Fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation (2008), the Rockefeller Foundation (2010), and the James Merrill House (2015). He is an honorary citizen for cultural merit of the city of Tucson, Arizona, and Baltimore, Maryland.

Federico Appel is the editor of Sinnos publishing house. He is also an author and illustrator - he has published novels for children, graphic novel and first reading books  published in Italy, Belgium, France and Slovenia.

Raffaella Baccolini is a full professor at the University of Bologna. Her research focuses on 20th-century and contemporary American and English literature and gender studies. In particular, she has published on women's literature; feminist criticism; utopia, dystopia and science fiction; modernism; memory and nostalgia; trauma; young adults' literature; cinema. She is a member of MeTRa; she is co-editor of the series of utopian studies ‘Ralahine Utopian Studies’ (Peter Lang) and of the online journal mediAzioni.

Stephanie Barrouillet is a foreign rights agent with over twenty years’ experience in selling rights and specialising in children’s books, comics and graphic novels.  After an M.A. in Children’s Literature, Stephanie started working for Walker Books Ltd in London in 1999 where she gained extensive knowledge in the field. In 2014, she founded her own agency, S.B.Rights Agency, to help international publishers overcome language and culture barriers and to promote unique titles globally. Her broad understanding of international markets and cultural diversity has led numerous undiscovered titles to international successes. S.B.Rights Agency currently represents publishers from all corners of the world from Estonia to Singapore and Korea, Brazil and Turkey to name just a few. 

Alexandra Büchler is Director of Literature Across Frontiers, the European platform for literary exchange, translation and policy debate, based in Wales, United Kingdom.
She has developed a range of initiatives fostering literary exchange and translation across Europe and beyond, particularly in Asia and the Euro-Med region, and has coordinated sector reports and studies focused on translation flows, international literary relations and related policy and financing. She co-founded the Literary Translation Centre at the London Book Fair and has contributed to the programmes of various international literary festivals and book fairs, including London, Frankfurt, New Delhi and Abu Dhabi. She has served on the executive committees of the advocacy network Culture Action Europe and of the European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism (ECSPM), and is currently on the board of ENLIT – European Network for Literary Translation.

Ivan Canu. Graduated in History of Theatre in Florence, he works in Milan as critic, author, project designer and illustrator. Since 2009, he has been one of the founders and the director of “Mimaster Illustrazione” school and one of the curators of The Illustrators Survival Corner for BCBF. He has written children’s books published in Italy, France, Japan, China, Korea. He’s an internationally recognized illustrator, worldwide represented by Salzman International.

Marco Dazzani is an author for children and young adults, he runs creative workshops for children in schools and is cice-president of the Italian Association of Writers for Children (ICWA).

Cécile Déniard  is an English-to-French literary translator and has long been active in the ATLF (Association des traducteurs littéraires de France), and for the last ten years she has been their delegate to CEATL, as head of the Authors’ Rights Working Group. She coordinated the European Conference on Literary Translation held in Strasbourg in October 2024.

Julià Florit holds a degree in Economics and Business administration and management from Pompeu Fabra University, and a master’s degree in Publishing.
Since 2005 he has worked at the Institut Ramon Llull, the Catalan cultural institute, where he has held various positions; first in the Literature Separtment and then as the institute’s delegate in Berlin (2013-2016). Since his return to Barcelona, he has been responsible for promoting Catalan literature at international fairs and festivals. He has been a board member of ENLIT, the network of European cultural institutes for literary translation, since last year.

Valentina Freschi translates from German and Dutch and specializes in children's and young adult literature. Her translation of Con il vento verso il mare by Guus Kuijer (Feltrinelli Kids) was included in the 2016 Ibby Honour List as the best children's translation in Italian. She won the Orbil Prize in 2013 with Per sempre insieme, amen by Guus Kuijer (Feltrinelli kids) and in 2024 with Il giorno in cui la talpa (quasi) vinse la lotteria by Kurt Bracharz (Lupoguido). In 2024, she also received a special mention by the Lorenzo Claris Appiani Prize for the translation of Robbi, Tobbi e il Vonapè by Boy Lornsen (Lupoguido). Among the authors she translated from Dutch: Annie M.G. Schmidt, Guus Kuijer, Paul Biegel, Jan Terlouw, Yorick Goldewijk and many others.

Gianluca Garofalo is an illustrator. In 2000 he was selected to participate in the Illustrator Exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, both in the fiction and non fiction sections. He collaborates with various schools, holding visual perception, drawing and illustration workshops for children and young people. He founded the editorial project studio and agency C.atWork (C.atWork Agency) and the illustration school C.atWork Academy. He works with several publishers all over the world. Since 2024 he has been Vice President of Ai-Autori di Immagini.

Yana Genova is a cultural manager, consultant and researcher. She is the founder of Next Page Foundation and the Sofia Literature and Translation House, and co-founder of the children reading platform www.knigovishte.bg. Yana has nearly 30 years of experience in cultural management and policy, including as a deputy major for culture and education of the City of Sofia. 

Elena Georgieva is a film producer and cultural manager. Over the years, she has worked for the Cervantes Spanish Cultural Institute–Sofia, the Fortissimo Familia educational program of the Sofia Philharmonic, the association of publishers Bulgarian Book Association, and various film festivals and production companies. She is the manager of the Bulgarian participation at Bologna Book Children’s Fair.

Toma Gudelyte is a freelance translator, publicist and PhD in humanities. In 2015, she received the Dominykas Urbas Prize for the Lithuanian translation of Gerico 1941. Storie di ghetto e dintorni by Igor Argamante. Her translations from Italian include: Italo Calvino, Tutte le cosmicomiche (2022), Marcovaldo (2021); Gianrico Carofiglio, Le tre del mattino (2022); Curzio Malaparte, La pelle (2021); Umberto Galimberti, Perché? 100 storie di filosofi per ragazzi curiosi (2020); Ascanio Celestini, Storie di uno scemo di guerra (2019); Davide Calì, Il venditore di felicità (2020).

Yorick Goldewijk is a Dutch author and musician. Il cinema dei film mai girati (Films die nergens draaien, 2021) is his fourth book and the second to arrive in Italy, published by Gallucci in 2023 and translated by Valentina Freschi. In the Netherlands, the novel was awarded the Gouden Griffel in 2022, the most important Dutch award in the field of children's and young people's literature. Coming soon to Italian readers: Mille e io (Duizend en ik, 2023) also translated by Valentina Freschi and published by Gallucci.

Valeria Illuminati is junior assistant professor for the project ‘Translatological studies for the analysis of the translation process in publishing/theatre in France and Italy in a synchronic and diachronic key, through interdisciplinary methodologies and in a gender perspective, with a focus on accessibility” at the Department of Interpretation and Translation of the University of Bologna - Forlì Campus. Her main interests and areas of research: literary translation for children, children's literature, gender studies, translation and gender, audiovisual translation and cultural accessibility.

Leah Janeczko Born in Chicago, she has lived in Italy since 1991 and for over 25 years has worked as an Italian-to-English translator of fiction for readers of all ages. Her recent translations include Roberto Piumini’s Glowrushes and Veronica Raimo’s Lost on me, shortlisted for the John Florio Prize and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. She is always keen to scout for beautiful Italian books worth translating.

Triinu Laan is a manager of cultural activities and a children's writer. She graduated in law from the Tallinn School of Economics and received a master’s degree in cultural management from the University of Tartu in 2018. She is involved in the translation and editing of Võro-language books, and organizes events aimed at the promotion of the Võro language and culture. As an author, Laan has written four children’s books, all of which are in both the Võro (a regional language in South Estonia), and Estonian languages. Her debut work, The Big Black Dog, (published under her previous name Triinu Ojar) received immediate international acclaim and was listed in the White Ravens catalogue.

Alba Mantovani translates fiction from English: classics and modern novels, fantasy, theatre and Young Adult books. She teaches literary translation from English at the Master Professione editoria cartacea e digitale at the Catholic University of Milan. She is an ordinary member of AITI, for which she organizes events on translation at the FAAM Laboratory in Milan.

Monica Martinelli, founder and editorial director of Settenove edizioni

Kateryna Mikhalitsyna is a Ukrainian author of more than 20 books for children, a translator, editor, cultural manager, illustrator, and a member of PEN Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine.

Anna Mioni translates from English (among her authors: Lester Bangs, Douglas Coupland, Tom McCarthy, Sam Lipsyte, Nell Zink, Ling Ma, Caleb Azumah Nelson) for the most important Italian publishing houses. In 2022 she won the Annibal Caro Prize for literary translation and was shortlisted for the Fano Literary Prize 2020. Since 2012 Anna has also been a literary agent and founded AC² Literary Agency.

Daniele Monticelli holds a MA degree in Philosophy (University of Milan, 1995), a PhD (University of Tartu, 2008) in Semiotics and has been a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Comparative Literature of Yale University (2013/14). He teaches a range of subjects in contemporary Italian history, society and politics, philosophy of language, comparative literature. His research is characterized by a wide and interdisciplinary range of interests which include philosophy of language, translation theory, literary semiotics, Italian studies and contemporary critical theory with particular focus on the political thought of Agamben, Badiou, Negri, Rancière and Žižek. Since 2003 he has participated in several international research projects in the fields of linguistics, semiotics, translation studies and from 2010 to 2012 he has been the recipient of the Estonian Science Foundation’s research grant "Translators (Re)shaping Cultural Repertoire".

Ayami Moriizumi is a researcher and curator of exhibitions on picture book artists. Her latest exhibition is "Leo Lionni and his Circle of Friends" currently showing in Japan. She has been collaborating with BCBF, JBBY and the Itabashi Art Museum in coordinating the Illustrators Exhibition in Japan since 1990.  From 1997 - 2023, she has created a series of documentaries on the BCBF and Illustrators Exhibition. She has translated picture books and worked on various projects such as the international tactile art exhibition ALBERI (Federazione nazionale delle istituzioni pro ciechi) in 2024. She is also active as a jury member for the Tocca a Te! Tactile Picture Books Competition in Italy. She also gives lectures on the art of picture books and organizes linguistic/artistic workshops for children. 

Alīse Nīgale, founding publisher and managing director of the children's book publishing house Liels un Mazs in Rīga, Latvia, brings over 20 years of publishing and reading promotion expertise. In 2022, Liels un Mazs won the Bologna Prize for the Best Children's Publishers of the Year for Europe (BOP). As a board member of the Latvian Publishers' Association since 2020 and a member of IBBY Latvia, she has played crucial roles in promoting children's literature and developing the children's book publishing sector in Latvia. Alīse has served on the IBBY Latvia board and as director of the International Jānis Baltvilks Prize in Children's Literature and Book Art for 12 years. She is the program director of the Sigulda Children's and Youth Literature Festival.

Francesca Novajra is a translator of fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults, from English, French and Portuguese into Italian. After a degree in translation in Geneva and a degree in interpreting in Trieste, she worked for a printer of picture books co-editions, as an editorial assistant for a publisher of children’s books and for a children’s museum. She has translated over a hundred children’s, teen and YA books and held translation workshops for children. In 2017 she was awarded the FIT Astrid Lindgren Prize. She is president of CEATL, where she represents AITI.

Fausta Orecchio, editorial director, Orecchio Acerbo

Arnaud Pasquali has more than 20 years’ experience in the design and management of EU funded support programmes to cultural and creative sectors. He is currently policy officer in the Creative Europe Programme unit of the European Commission and follows in particular the book and publishing sector.

Roberta Pederzoli is an associate professor at the Department of Interpretation and Translation, University of Bologna (Forlì Campus), and teaches French language and translation from French into Italian. Her research focuses on literary translation and children's literature (also in translation) from a gender perspective. She was part of the research group of the European project G-BOOK (Gender Identity - Child Readers and Library Collections) and is coordinator of the AlmaIdea Unibo project ‘The translation of children's texts in a gender perspective: theoretical and applied aspects.

Renate Punka is president of Latvian Publishers Association, chair of Council on Books and Reading for Latvian Ministry of Culture, the representative of Latvian publishers in Federation of European Publishers (FEP). She is also the managing director of Janis Roze Publishers – one of the oldest and most respected publishing houses in Latvia (established in 1914), and a highly regarded translator from English and Russian. She is MAs in Latvian language and literature and translation, and has studied business administration at Riga Business School. She has also worked as a literary critic, journalist and marketing manager, and was for several years a host of radio programmes.

Cora Presezzi, editorial consultant, Adelphi

Julia Rafailovich is part of Next Page Foundation since 2020. She was in charge of the foundation's European projects before taking over as executive director in late 2023. Julia has more than 10 years of experience in project management in the culture and civic sector, she studied sociology and philology at university.

Sergio Ruzzier is an author and illustrator of picture books. His books are published worldwide, in Italy mainly by Topipittori and La Grande Illusion. For Adelphi, he is translating the works of Maurice Sendak and Ruth Krauss.

Sara Saorin, co-funder and editorial director, Camelozampa

Roberta Scarabelli works as a literary translator of novels and essays for adults and children from English and German for publishers such as EDT, Garzanti, Mondadori, Neri Pozza, Piemme, Rizzoli. She has translated, among others, Dan Brown, Ken Follett, Robert Seethaler, J.P. Sendker, Ruta Sepetys. She is an ordinary member of AITI, for which she organises events on translation at the FAAM Laboratory in Milan.

Lawrence Shimel, a multilingual award -winning writer, translator, editor and anthologist, working primarily in and between Spanish and English. His picture books have been selected for the White Ravens from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany and have twice been chosen for IBBY’s Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities, among many other awards and distinctions.

Beatrice Spallaccia is a junior assistant professor for the research project “The representation of online gender issues between journalistic discourse and hate speech: critical comparative analysis between English and Italian newspapers”, at the Department of Interpretation and Translation, University of Bologna - Forlì Campus. Her main interests and areas of research: gender studies and queer theories; online hate speech; translation and gender; literary translation of LGBTQ+ texts; audiovisual translation and cultural accessibility; diversity management; critical discourse analysis.

Maria Elena Tisi teaches Japanese Culture and Language at the University of Bologna. Her research interests are focused on Japanese children’s literature, translation from Japanese and cultural relations between Italy and Japan.    

Benedetta Tosi, editor, Nomos edizioni

Rita Tura translates children’s books from Latvian to Italian and works as project manager for the Latvian Literature International Writers and Translators House.

Alessandra Valtieri is a literary translator from English and German, specialising in literature for children and YA. She has translated books of poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction by leading American, British, German and Swiss authors including Katherine Paterson, Ian Falconer, Sharon G. Flake, John Bemelmans Marciano, Michael Morpurgo, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Reinhardt Jung, Henning Wiesner, Wolfgang Herrndorf, Ulrich Hub and Marcus Pfister. Since 2021, he has collaborated with the Junior Poetry Festival in Castel Maggiore (BO) and the “Junior Poetry Magazine”. She works for several Italian publishers and is a member of the teaching staff at the Drosselmeier Academy in Bologna where she helds courses and workshops on children's literature in translation and on teaching Italian to foreigners through picture books.           

Eva Valvo did Classical studies and has been working as a full-time literary translator since 2012. She is an active literary scout specialising in Danish and Norwegian literature for children and YA. She is a board member of the translators’ union Strade that she represents at CEATL, the European Council of Literary Translators' Associations. A tireless cultural promoter and organiser, she co-ordinates two peer-to-peer residential workshop programmes, “Viceversa” for Danish<>Italian literary translators and “Laboratorio Nordico” for translators from Nordic languages into Italian. Since 2017 she has coordinated translation events at two book festivals in Palermo, Una Marina di Libri and Festival delle Letterature Migranti.

Edward van de Vendel, a Dutch author and translator, a teacher, and winner of many of the most prestigious prizes for children’s literature in the Netherlands, was shortlisted for  the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2024) and received several nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Riccardo Zanini, editorial director, Diabolo Edizioni.

Giovanna Zoboli, editorial director, Topipittori