Prototype scoops 'refreshing' memoir from translator Jen Calleja

Prototype has scooped Fair, the "refreshing" memoir on the art of translation from Jen Calleja. 

Publisher Jess Chandler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Seren Adams at United Agents for publication in spring 2025. 

A "satirical" and "playful" book, Fair explores the publishing industry and how Calleja learnt "the art of translation", as well her life and family growing up, moving between "personal memories and larger questions about the role of a literary translator in publishing".

Calleja said: "With this book I hope to challenge myths around who could and should be a translator/writer/artist, share the (perhaps surprising) incremental steps that led to me becoming a literary translator, and bring translators into closer kinship with other creative practitioners – not only in our experience of our practices but also our precarity."

Chandler added: "Jen and I have worked closely together for many years, and I have known this book was coming for some time. The experience of finally reading it was so deeply moving and exciting, and it is an immense privilege to have the opportunity to publish it. I truly believe Jen to be one of the most important and inspirational writers, and a vital force in the world of translation and independent publishing, and I can’t wait for people to read this book."