Daniel Hahn (born 26 November 1973) is a British writer, editor and translator.
He is the author of a number of works of non-fiction, including the history book ''The Tower Menagerie'', and one of the editors of
The Ultimate Book Guide, a series of reading guides for children and teenagers, the first volume of which won the
Blue Peter Book Award. Other titles include ''Happiness Is a Watermelon on Your Head'' (a picture-book for children), ''The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland'' (a reference book), brief biographies of the poets
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...
and
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...
, and a new edition of ''
The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature'' is a reference work first published in 1984, with its most recent edition in 2015. The Oxford Companions is a book series providing general knowledge within a specific area, in this case, children ...
''.
His translation of ''The Book of Chameleons'' by
José Eduardo Agualusa won the
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. His translation of ''
A General Theory of Oblivion'', also by
José Eduardo Agualusa, won the 2017
International Dublin Literary Award
The International Dublin Literary Award (), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely ...
, with Hahn receiving 25% of the €100,000 prize. His other translations include
Pelé
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...
's autobiography and work by novelists
José Luís Peixoto,
Philippe Claudel
Philippe Claudel (born 2 February 1962) is a French writer and film director.
Claudel was born in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, Meurthe-et-Moselle. In addition to his writing, Claudel is a professor of literature at the University of Nancy.
He directe ...
,
María Dueñas,
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which ...
, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares">Eduardo Halfon">ith which ...
, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares, and others.
A former chair of the Translators Association and the Society of Authors, as well as national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, he currently serves on the board of trustees of the Society of Authors and a number of other organisations working with literature, literacy and free expression, including
for services to literature.
He won the 2023 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature.
Three of Hahn's literary translations have been longlisted for the
making the shortlist in 2016. In 2022, Hahn's Portuguese to English translation of
was longlisted for the Prize. And in 2024,
, which Hahn co-translated from Spanish into English with Noel Hernández González, was longlisted for the International Booker Prize.
He is currently working on a book about translations of Shakespeare around the world for
.