Services / Literary & cultural translation

Literary & cultural translation · English & Norwegian into French

Words that carry a whole culture with them.

I translate and edit books and cultural content into French for museums, cultural institutions, publishers and authors. Fiction, self-development, exhibitions and catalogues: texts where tone and references matter as much as meaning.

Discuss your project What I translate

Young woman listening to an audio guide in front of classical sculptures at a museum exhibition

80+books translated

20+authors

6M+words translated

Why word for word is not enough

A text can be accurate and still feel foreign.

Literary and cultural texts are full of idioms, humour, historical references and choices of tone that have no direct equivalent. Translated word for word, they stay correct on paper and lose their effect on the reader.

Cultural translation means finding what a French reader would feel in the same place. Sometimes that is a different image, a different rhythm, or a short explanation a visitor needs in front of a museum piece.

English

It’s raining cats and dogs.

Word for word

Il pleut des chats et des chiens.

What a French reader would say

Il pleut des cordes.

French rain does not fall as cats and dogs but as ropes (des cordes): heavy, straight lines of water. Same meaning, a different image. In a novel or an exhibition, choices like this one appear on every page.

What I translate

Two worlds, one passion.

I translate from English and Norwegian into French (Spanish coming soon), and I edit French texts for the same audiences.

Colourful artworks on display in a museum

Culture

Museums & cultural institutions

Exhibition texts, catalogues and visitor materials that inform without lecturing, and keep the voice of the institution in French.

Types of text

Silhouette of a woman standing in front of softly lit bookshelves

Publishing

Books, fiction & self-development

Novels and non-fiction for publishers and authors, translated with the voice of the original intact, and the material that helps the book find its French readers.

Types of text

Beyond the translation

Everything the text needs to reach its readers.

One translator for the book and everything around it means fewer people to brief, fewer inconsistencies, and lower costs across a series or a season of exhibitions.

Translation & editing

The full text, translated or revised in French, ready for layout.

Glossaries

Names, places, recurring terms and style choices, so a series stays consistent from one book to the next.

Terminology research

Art history, period vocabulary, technical terms: checked against French reference sources.

Back-cover copy & blurbs

Written for French readers and the codes of the French market, not simply translated.

Optimised keywords

Keyword lists for online bookshops and platforms, so the book can be found once it is published.

Briefs & newsletters

A short brief on your French voice, and newsletters that keep your readers or visitors in the loop.

And AI?

I use AI tools to support terminology research, glossaries and consistency checks across long texts. The reading, the choices and the writing remain mine: that is where a literary translation lives.

Common hesitations

Three things I often hear, and my honest answer.

“Human translation is beyond our budget.”

My answer

A good translation is an investment that keeps working: a glossary built once saves time on every following book or exhibition. And you can start small, with the back-cover copy, the opening chapters or the key panels, then build from there.

“A faithful, word-for-word translation is enough.”

My answer

A translation can follow every word of the original and still miss what the author meant. What readers and visitors remember is the tone, the rhythm and the references. If the translation loses them, the information is still there, but the text no longer has the same effect.

“We are not sure the French market is for us.”

My answer

Many authors and institutions wonder this before taking the step. I know the codes of French publishing and what French readers expect, and I can help you test the waters with a first, well-chosen piece.

Why this work matters to me

A lifelong love of the written word.

I have always loved books, and I love helping artists, writers and cultural institutions reach new audiences. For more than ten years, I have translated novels and non-fiction from English and Norwegian, including five books for Saga Egmont.

Museums are my other world. I have spent countless Sundays in them, and volunteered in libraries, cataloguing and shelving books. Translating for culture means working on the things I would visit and read anyway.

Angélique Olivia MoreauLinguist and translator, based in Bergen · More about me →

Training & background

Master’s (DEA) in Foreign Literatures and Cultures, English option, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis
C1 certificate in Norwegian (Bergenstesten)
80+ books translated for around twenty authors, 6M+ words translated
300,000+ words written as a copywriter trained in SEO
Master in AI and Innovation for Localization, TranslaStars (in progress)

Who I work with

Made for people who care about culture.

Museums & cultural institutions

Exhibitions, catalogues, visitor materials.

Agencies working with them

A specialist for your cultural clients.

Publishers & authors

Fiction, self-development, non-fiction.

Creative freelancers & solopreneurs

Your work, told in French.

Looking for product sheets, press kits or marketing content in fashion, luxury or interior design? See my technical translation service.

Questions

About literary and cultural translation.

Turnaround times, payment methods, revisions and confidentiality are covered in the general questions on my services page.

Can you keep a series consistent from one book to the next?

Yes. I keep a glossary of names, places, recurring expressions and stylistic choices for each series, so that book five reads like book one, even if months pass between them.

Do you also write the back-cover copy and keywords?

Yes. I can adapt or write back-cover copy, optimised blurbs and keyword lists for French-language bookshops and online platforms, so readers can find the book once it is translated.

Do you use AI for literary translation?

For research, terminology and consistency checks, yes. Some publishers also ask for post-editing of a machine translation, and I can do that too. I will always tell you when a full human translation would serve the book better.

My budget is limited. Where should I start?

Start with what readers see first: the back-cover copy, the opening chapters, or the key panels of an exhibition. I can give you an estimate before any work begins, and we can build from there.

Do you translate from Spanish?

Not yet. Spanish into French is coming soon. For now, I translate from English and Norwegian into French.

Have a book or an exhibition to bring to French readers?

Tell me about the project, the length of the text and your timeline. I will reply with a quote and a delivery date.

Email hello@angeliqueolivia.com All services