Seán McDonagh is a literary translator and editor whose love of literature and languages has taken him from the Big Smoke and the world of publishing to the canal-carved plains of Milan, with some Olympian adventures along the way.
He translates fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, and poetry, from Italian to English, and works with publishers and agents, providing sample translations, readers’ reports, editing, and foreign-rights consultancy.
His translations have been published in journals such as Asymptote, Literary Hub, and The Southern Review, and his co-translation of ‘The Ghosts of Munfrà’ by Piera Ventre won the Oran Robert Perry Burke Award for Literary Translation 2025. He has translated Dino Buzzati, Fausta Cialente, Cesare Pavese, Piera Ventre, Chiara Barzini, and Valentina Maini, among others, and was the National Centre for Writing’s 2024 Emerging Translator Mentee for Italian.
Before becoming a translator, Seán worked for various publishers such as Bloomsbury Publishing and Rowman & Littlefield. Gaining experience across multiple areas, he had an affinity for the world of rights and international publishing, and spent several years managing translation, audio, and film/TV rights for a vast number of titles. He now provides foreign-rights consultancy, and works with clients such as Emma Press and Tin House. His passion for translation has also led him to take on the role of Literary Translation Project Assistant for the translation-focused research group In Other Words, and before this, he worked for two and a half years as an editor for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
Seán has participated in the BCLT Advanced Italian–English Literary Translation Workshop, the Warwick Translates Summer School, and various courses at the Italian Cultural Institute and the Poetry School, and he is a passionate student of the Irish language. Seán was previously a member of the Emerging Translators’ Network committee, and on the board of the Poetry School.
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