Hebe Powell

Hebe Powell lives and works in London as a freelance translator of Spanish. Born in England, she spent part of her childhood in Argentina and later, took a year to work and travel in Spain. She took up a career in physics, completing a PhD in quantum optics at Imperial College London and then working as a research scientist in this field. She has also been as a science teacher.
In recent years Hebe has been translating Hispano American fiction. She has worked on three substantial translation projects in collaboration with Nick Caistor. The first was a Nicaraguan legal thriller “Divine Punishment” (Castigo Divino) by Sergio Ramirez. It was published in 2015 by McPherson and won the 2017 Independent Press Award for world fiction.She also co-translated two volumes from a Cuban science fiction trilogy by Agustín de Rojas: “Year 200” (Año 200) and “Spiral” (Espiral). Year 200 was published in 2016 by Restless Books. Spiral is due to be published in 2019. Hebe currently works as a volunteer translator with the Latin American Bureau. She is also a researcher in the Cultures and Languages department at Birkbeck college where her work focusses on politeness theory and rapport management, particularly the linguistic strategies employed by users of an online marketplace based in Argentina.