Hello! My name is Bo, and as you’ve probably gathered, I craft translations; mostly from Dutch into English, sometimes the other way around. I started my career in 2020 with commercial translations and some fantastically interesting informative projects, and began focusing on literary translation a couple of years later.
As a translator, I believe boundaries are meant to be explored; not just the boundaries between languages and cultures, but also those between genres, between literary and generic (non-)fiction. I love texts that span different categories, break conventions, and are not easily defined. So if you need something translated that can’t quite be put in a box, you’ve come to the right place—that’s exactly the kind of challenge I enjoy!
Take a look around my website to learn more about who I am and what I do. Any questions? Just drop me a line—I’m always happy to tell you more about my previous experiences or chat about a project.
About Me
Bo-Elise Brummelkamp
I was born and raised in the Hague, the Netherlands. A bookworm from a young age, I quickly became enthralled by British literature. After graduating secondary school, I moved to Scotland to study English Language and Literature at the University of Edinburgh. There, I fell in love with the gorgeous country, fantastic literary scene and my wonderful partner. I never left, and I still live and work in Edinburgh today.
Though I grew up in a Dutch-speaking household, I started learning English at a very young age. Over the course of my late teens and early twenties, my penchant for the language grew into full-blown native-level mastery. Though translation may seem like an obvious career path for a bilingual book lover, this somehow didn’t occur to me while I was doing my degree. Instead, I stumbled across my first translation gig after graduating in the middle of lockdown.
I started working as in-house translator for a small Dutch company, doing everything from marketing emails to card games and an online mindfulness course. This experience led to more diverse translation projects, including websites, subtitling, and archive exhibitions. I kept working as a commercial translator off and on for two years, at which point I finally felt confident enough to start pursuing literary translation. Once I did, some amazing opportunities crossed my path; more about those below!
Work & Appearances
Having studied literature, I am always on the lookout for the literary implications of stylistic, symbolic or thematic choices in a text, and I do everything I can to preserve them in my translation. As a native Dutch speaker, I have a profound understanding of the source language’s nuances (some of which may be missed by second-language speakers), and my degree and extensive experience with communicating in English allow me to accurately convey these to an Anglophone audience—without losing the original effect or sounding unnatural.
Translation of Free Ride 2024
Atria Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) reached out to me in July 2024 to ask if I would be interested in translating the book Free Ride (original title Keerpunt) by Noraly Schoenmaker. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity.
Free Ride tells the story of Schoenmaker’s months-long motorcycle journey that put her world-famous Youtube channel Itchy Boots on the map. In the book, she candidly details the highs, the lows, and what had driven her to leave everything behind and start a new life as an adventurer in the first place.
It was a challenging but incredibly fulfilling project. The deadline was exceptionally tight, so it was vital to work quickly while still paying attention to detail. With the help of feedback from both the author and the editors, I crafted a translation that accurately reflected the intention and style of the original. A short sample is available upon request.
Bo was professional, accommodating, and an all-around pleasure to work with! Her translation of Free Ride from Dutch to English was thoughtful, sensitive to the author’s requests, and, most importantly, faithful to the original work, offering both clarity and readability. With a very tight deadline, we were lucky to find Bo, whose speedy communication and dedication to the project allowed us to have an excellent translation completed and edited not only on time but a few days early.
—Hannah Frankel, Simon & Schuster (Atria Books)
ALTA Mentorship 2023
In early 2023, I was accepted into the Emerging Translator Mentorship Program of the American Literary Translators Association. This would mark the beginning of my biggest project yet: translating my first book. I chose the novel Hina by Lotte Kok, a retelling of a classic Middle Dutch miracle play that has been described as a fairy tale with hints of horror. It tells the story of a young girl who is forced to flee into dark and dangerous woods, where she meets all kinds of people and mythical creatures, including a wealthy man who is not what he seems, a troubled knight who wants to protect her though he struggles to protect himself, and a wise, talking hedgehog who implores her to save the forest.
From choosing the novel to liaising with the rights manager and author, to pitching to foreign publishers—this mentorship was full of firsts for me. I navigated all of these steps and the translation itself under the mentorship of the amazing David McKay. A finished sample and pitch are available upon request, and you are of course welcome to reach out with any specific questions you may have about this project.
Crossing Border 2022
In November 2022, I had the opportunity to be a part of The Chronicles, the residency project of the Crossing Border annual music and literature festival. For five days, the participating authors wrote a daily short text inspired by the festival, each of which was then translated and posted online within a few hours. I had the pleasure of translating the contributions of emerging Dutch author Mauk Westerman Holstijn into English.
Following the festival, I took part in a week-long intensive masterclass where I translated one of the short stories from his collection under the guidance of my wonderful mentors, Jonathan Reeder and Kristen Gehrmann. If you’d like to take a look at the result, feel free to reach out and I’ll gladly send you a copy.
Samples & Excerpts
I’ve had the chance to translate a few samples and excerpts, and I am always looking to do more! I think they’re a great way to explore styles and genres I am unfamiliar with or might otherwise overlook, and I love the challenge of capturing the author’s voice in an isolated, brief glimpse of the full text. If you’re looking for someone to translate a sample for a foreign publisher, an excerpt for non-Dutch speakers at a festival, or any other type of short text, please feel free to reach out to me with some basic details about the text. If you’d like to take a look at my previous work, translated samples are available upon requests, including excerpts from Astrid Roemer’s DealersDochter and Katinka Polderman’s Beslisbos.
Everything Else
You’ve been able to read about the literary highlights of my career (so far), but I’ve done loads of interesting commercial work too! Read all about it HERE in my CV.
Get in Touch
I’m always happy to hear from you—whether you’d like to discuss a specific project, or just want to know more about me and my work.
Every project is different, so my rates vary depending on a number of factors, including expected turnaround time and the length of the text. If you’re interested in working with me, feel free to get in touch with some basic information about the project and a rough word count, and I’ll gladly get back to you with a quote—no strings attached.
A number of sample translations are available upon request, but I am also open to translating a brief excerpt of the text to help you assess whether I’d be a good fit for the project.
I look forward to hearing from you!
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Bo’s Translations 