Jessica Gaitán Johannesson (she/her) is a writer and organiser based in Edinburgh. Her writing has appeared in publications in Sweden, the UK, US and Ireland, including Literary Hub, Gutter, gal-dem, Red Pepper and The Stinging Fly. She’s the author of the Desmond Elliot Prize-nominated novel How We Are Translated (2021), and the essay collection The Nerves and Their Endings: Essays on Crisis and Response (2022). She’s the Digital Campaigns Manager for Lighthouse, Edinburgh’s radical bookshop, Programme Director for Edinburgh’s Radical Book Fair and a proud member of Fossil Free Books.
Rebecca Strong (she/her) is the founder of Selkies House, an independent press publishing award-winning authors and translators from around the world. Her career has spanned publishing and technology here and in the USA. She has worked at Harvill, Bloomsbury, Random House New York, and as an independent literary agent. After learning to code, for a brief period she worked as a software engineer for a dev shop consulting for Silicon Alley startups. In 2018 she returned to the UK and full circle to literature in translation. Rebecca is learning Scottish Gaelic.
Hephzibah Israel (she/her) is Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies, University of Edinburgh. She researches the intersections between translation, religion, literature, history, and postcolonial studies. She has authored Religious Transactions in Colonial South India: Language, Translation and the Making of Protestant Identity (2011) and has edited the Routledge Handbook of Translation and Religion (2023). She chairs the editorial board of Brill’s book series, Approaches to Translation Studies and co-edits the Routledge series: Creative, Social and Transnational Perspectives on Translation. Her multilingual poetry on translation and border-crossings was exhibited at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, June-September 2023.
Rachel Rankin (she/her) is a poet, translator and language tutor from Coatbridge, currently based in Edinburgh. Her translations from Norwegian have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Words Without Borders and The Poetry Review, among others, and she was the winner of the 2024 Nadia Christensen Prize for outstanding literary translations from a Nordic language into English. Rachel holds a PhD in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and her thesis explores various approaches to translating different styles of Norwegian poetry. As well as working as a translator, Rachel currently teaches Norwegian language classes at Durham University.
Vineet Lal has degrees in French from the University of Edinburgh and Princeton University and studied translation and conference interpreting at Heriot-Watt University. After a long career in tourism and destination marketing, he turned to literary translation, and he was one of the inaugural recipients of the Emerging Translator Mentorships, first awarded at the BCLT Summer School in 2010. He has now translated a number of leading French authors including Guillaume Musso, Michel Bussi and Grégoire Delacourt, along with several children’s writers. His translation of The Red Notebook was shortlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger 2023; his translation of The Brothers Zzli won the Prix Albertine Jeunesse (6–8 years category) 2024; and his translation of Meet the Lithographer is currently shortlisted for the Prix Albertine Jeunesse (9–11 years category) 2025. He was co-chair of the Translators Association from 2022–2024 and has been a Trustee of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature since 2013. He will be leading the French to English translation workshop at the annual BCLT Summer School in 2025, alongside Swiss author Bruno Pellegrino.
Katherine Wilkinson is Head of Research & Evaluation at Scottish Book Trust, a national charity that believes books, reading and writing have the power to change lives. Prior to Scottish Book Trust, she worked in academic and educational publishing for ten years.
Rebecca Wojturska (she/her) is the Managing Director of Haunt Publishing, an independent publisher of Gothic, horror and dark fiction books. Dedicated to exploring both traditional and contemporary Gothic and horror literature, Haunt holds a flickering candle to global and underrepresented voices. Rebecca also works in academic publishing at the University of Edinburgh, managing Edinburgh Diamond: a library-based Diamond Open Access publishing service for academic- and student-led books and journals. In her spare time she loves nothing more than reading Gothic literature, watching horror films, playing D&D, and crushing her enemies at board games.
Francis Bickmore (he/him) joined Canongate in 2000. He now works as Publisher at Large, based in Canongate’s Edinburgh office. He commissions and edits books and helps to devise and deploy Canongate’s Acquisitions strategy across the Editorial Department. As editor he has worked with writers including Yann Martel, Matt Haig, Lemn Sissay, Kevin Barry, JJ Abrams, Alasdair Gray, James Meek, Louise Welsh, Nick Cave, Terry Gilliam, David Byrne, Mary Costello, David Lynch, Amy Liptrot and, posthumously, Leonard Cohen. In 2018 he joined the Canongate’s Board of Directors and he has also been a trustee of the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Edinburgh City of Literature.
Hannah (she/her) has been a ‘Lighthouse Keeper’ for almost 2 years as Senior Bookseller and Returns Coordinator. She previously worked at the flagship Blackwell’s in Oxford, amongst a variety of other curatorial, heritage and charity roles. She is natural history nerd and folklore fan. Special skill: overhearing enquiries from across the shop and appearing with said book in hand (like the bookseller gremlin she is).
Emma Hargrave (she/her) was publisher at Tindal Street Press, an independent Birmingham-based publisher of new voices in literary fiction, aiming to challenge the dominance of the south east. Among its achievements, Tindal Street secured three Booker nominations and two Costa First Novel awards. Today Emma works as a freelance editorial consultant, having held editorial and commissioning roles at Black & White and Barrington Stoke, both independent presses based in Edinburgh. In 2024, she was a fiction judge for the Scotland’s National Book Awards.
Lizzi (she/her) currently works at Collins as the Head of Sales and Marketing for Education in Scotland. Prior to this she spent seven years at Hachette, most latterly as the Digital Account Director for Hodder & Stoughton and Hachette Children’s Group. Lizzi began her career working on medical journals at Nature Publishing Group, so she’s worked in every area of publishing – adult trade, children’s, educational and STM – and has a broad understanding of the industry.
Alastair (he/him) worked in publishing for more than a decade – mostly at Cambridge University Press, in roles including Innovations Manager and Social Media and Communities Manager. In 2020, he started work as a lecturer in publishing at the University of Stirling, where he specialises in digital and academic publishing. He’s also the author of several books for Amber Books, including Chess Illustrated – published next month – Abandoned Scotland, and Graves of the Great and Famous.
Leah Cameron (any pronouns) is a Glasgow-based artist, writer and zine-maker. They have been involved in Glasgow’s small press community for over three years as both a maker and facilitator of others’ creative practices. They are currently studying an MLitt in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling and hopes to engage with marginalised communities to make art spaces more accessible. Leah is currently working with Glasgow Zine Library as part of their course in an effort to learn more about the role of third sector spaces in publishing.
Abigail is the Policy Development and Training Manager at Publishing Scotland. She is responsible for developing policy relating to some of the big challenges facing publishing, including environmental sustainability and Artificial Intelligence. Other areas of focus are Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Fair Work and Codes of Conduct. Abigail is also responsible for ensuring that the training programme offered by Publishing Scotland meets the needs of their membership. Abigail has previously worked as online editor at Marie Claire South Africa, and joins Publishing Scotland after five years leading the Communications and Alumni Relations department at The Mandela Rhodes Foundation, Nelson Mandela’s official legacy organisation for leadership development. She is also a writer and editor of fiction and non-fiction.
Mohamed Tonsy (he/they) is an Egyptian writer, ceramicist, bookseller at Lighthouse Bookshop and organiser with Fossil Free Books. Tonsy completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Their writing has appeared in Mizna, Epoch Press, won a Quarterly John Byrne Award and was Shortlisted for MFest’s 2021 Short Story Competition. In 2023, Tonsy was the Jameel Ceramics Fellow at the London V&A. Their debut novel, You Must Believe in Spring was published in 2022 by Hajar Press.
Photographed by Lee Lewis.
Jane Alexander (she/her) is a novelist and short story writer, and a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh where she teaches on the Creative Writing and Narrative Futures MSc programmes. Her most recent publications are The Flicker Against the Light and Writing the Contemporary Uncanny, a collection of uncanny short fiction about science and technology published with an accompanying essay, and A User’s Guide to Make-Believe, a novel about immersive virtual realities.
Peter Mackay/Pàdraig MacAoidh (he/him) is a poet, lecturer and broadcaster. He has two collections of poems, Nàdur De (Some Kind of, 2020) and Gu Leòr (Galore, 2015), published by Acair, and a pamphlet, From Another Island, with Clutag Press (2010). He writes in Gàidhlig and English, and his work has been translated into Czech, French, German, Irish, Occitan, Macedonian, Scots, Slovakian and Welsh. His academic work includes This Strange Loneliness: Heaney’s Wordsworth (2021) and Sorley MacLean (2011); he is a Senior Lecturer in Literature at the University of St Andrews and has been an AHRC / Radio 3 New Generation Thinker. In 2024 he was appointed Scottish Makar.