Dr Katharina Hall offers services to writers, academics, journals, magazines, publishers, and cultural bodies in and beyond the UK.

• Translation (GER > ENG) – literature, crime, history, politics, publishing, academia
• Editing and copy-editing
• Consultancy – reader reviews, TV/film

Kat’s expertise and experience –

• German to English translator
• Member of the Society of Authors and the Translators Association
• Twenty-five years of editing / copy-editing academic and cultural texts
• Manuscript editor for the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
• Translating and editing both fiction and non-fiction texts
• Editor of Crime Fiction in German and crime fiction blogger
• BA in English and German (first-class hons), Southampton University
• PhD in German studies, Southampton University
• Eighteen years as lecturer / senior lecturer / associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Swansea University
• Honorary Research Associate in Modern Languages, Swansea University

Recent translations: Ferdinand von Schirach’s Punishment and Coffee and Cigarettes (Baskerville)

Punishment was shortlisted for the 2023 TA First Translation Prize and for the 2023 Schlegel-Tieck Prize.

Coffee and Cigarettes is a 2023 TLS Book of the Year:

“Coffee and Cigarettes has recently been beautifully translated into English by Katharina Hall, and is the perfect way into his oeuvre.” (Anna Katharina Schaffner)

Kat’s clients include – 

• Academics and authors
• Baskerville (imprint of John Murray)
• BBC Radio Four
• BBC World Service
• Brown University
• CrimeFest
• De Gruyter Verlag
• Fischer Verlag
• Frankfurt Book Fair
• Goethe-Institut London
• John Murray Press
• Kiepenheuer & Witsch
• Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
• Marcel Hartges Literatur- und Filmagentur
• März Verlag
• Mathias Döpfner
• Mystery Tribune
• Newcastle Noir
• New Books in German
• Peter Lang Publishing
• Piper Verlag
• Swansea University
• University of Wales Press
• Working Title TV

Selected further projects – 

• Academic copy-editing: Bianca Lindorfer, Cosmopolitan Baroque: Aristocratic Networks and Cultural Exchange in the Habsburg Monarchies (Routledge, 2024)
• Book-length translation and extensive copy-editing: Mathias Döpfner, The Trade Trap: How to Stop Doing Business with Dictators (Simon & Schuster 2023)
• Book-length literary translation: Ferdinand von Schirach’s Coffee and Cigarettes (Baskerville / John Murray Press 2023)
• Non-fiction translation: Frankfurt Book Fair, ‘Peace’ catalogue
• Comparative edit of Andrew McMillan’s poetry volume Physical (März Verlag 2023)
• Academic copy-editing: autobiography of Willy Katzenstein (1874-1951) for the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
• Book-length literary translation: Ferdinand von Schirach’s Punishment (Baskerville / John Murray Press 2022)
• Non-fiction copy-editing: translations of news articles for Ukrayinska Pravda
• Academic copy-editing: journal article on the National Socialist Reichsbürgergesetz
• Literary translation: sample of J.M. Stim’s crime novel Malta Transfer
• Non-fiction translation: Ferdinand von Schirach, Everyone / Jeder Mensch
• Academic copy-editing: journal article on German-Jewish attitudes to matrimony
• Translation: Frankfurt Book Fair articles, including pieces by Nino Haratischwili, Terézia Mora, Olga Grjasnowa, Saša Stanišić (p. 22), Alina Bronsky, Artur Becker.
• Comparative edit of novel: English translation of Frank Schätzing’s Breaking News (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2022)
• Non-fiction translation: sample of Sophie Passmann’s Gänsehaut / Growing Pains (KiWi)
• Literary translation: sample of David Schalko’s Bad Regina / Regina Spa (KiWi)
• Non-fiction translation: sample of Hans Fricke’s Out and About in the Blue Universe (KiWi)
• Literary translation: sample of audio piece by Katrin Eichmann
• Academic copy-editing: journal article on fin-de-siècle Vienna
• Academic translation: conference paper on Ernst Toller’s speeches in exile
• Non-fiction translation: various Frankfurt Magazine articles (Frankfurt Book Fair)
• Academic translation: journal article on Volker Kutscher’s crime fiction
• Academic translation: chapters for Thomas Kniesche’s Contemporary German Crime Fiction (De Gruyter 2019)
• Academic copy-editing: journal article on political activism in 1980s West Germany
• Translation: Frankfurt Book Fair press releases
• Translation: German publisher catalogues for London Book Fair
• Reader reports for publishers and New Books in German

I love what I do. I’m committed to achieving the best possible results for my clients. I’m used to managing complex projects and meeting strict deadlines.

You can view some of my client thanks and testimonials here.

Please get in touch via the contact page or peabodyink74@ gmail.com for further information and rates.

Kat Hall © 2025