Chosen Tongue

Ova Ceren writes bittersweet tales of heartbreak and magic, often inspired by Turkish and Ottoman folklore. Blessed (or perhaps cursed) with a mathematical brain, she earned a degree in Computer Science and a master's that led her into a career in IT, taking her from Türkiye to Britain. After years of wrestling with algorithms in corporate jungles, she finally eloped with a debut novel instead. Ova now lives in Cambridge, UK, with her husband, son, and a spirited flock of runner ducks. She is also the creator of the popular Instagram and TikTok channels @excusemyreading.

In this conversation, Ova reflects on writing in English as an immigrant writer, and on the delicate act of translating a culture, and a self, for a foreign audience.
We talk about language and belonging, about choosing imagination over certainty, and about what it means to build a literary voice far from home.

Sophie Lewis is a London-born translator and editor. Working from French and Portuguese, she has translated books by Marcel Aymé, Josephine Baker, Hélène Cixous, Annie Ernaux, Violette Leduc, Noémi Lefebvre, Nastassja Martin, Françoise Sagan, Leïla Slimani, Stendhal and Jules Verne; also Victor Heringer, Patrícia Melo, Sheyla Smanioto and Micheliny Verunschk, among others. For six years she was principal editor at publisher And Other Stories, and her most recent in-house position was as managing editor at The Folio Society. With Gitanjali Patel, she co-founded Shadow Heroes translation workshops. Lewis's translations have been shortlisted for the Scott Moncrieff and Republic of Consciousness prizes, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. In 2022, she won the French-American Foundation's prize for non-fiction translation.
In this episode, Sophie speaks about translating Hélène Cixous's Angst, and about the intellectual, ethical, and stylistic decisions that shape a translator's work.
We talk about voice and fidelity, humour and idiom, and about what it means to write in English while carrying another language inside the sentence.

Costanza Casati was born in Texas and raised in Northern Italy. She holds an MA in Writing from the University of Warwick and has worked as a screenwriter and journalist. Her debut novel, Clytemnestra, sold into more than twenty territories worldwide and won the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, while her second novel, Babylonia, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller and the winner of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.
In this conversation, Costanza reflects on writing in her second language, English, the imposter syndrome that has accompanied her success, and the visceral encounter with Clytemnestra that first compelled her to write. We speak about language, identity, translation, and the persistence required to claim one's voice across tongues.

Gonzalo Ceron Garcia was born in Santiago and spent his first years in Chile's Colchagua Valley region, before moving to Switzerland and eventually to the University of Kent, where he studied for a PhD under Scarlett Thomas. He currently teaches creative writing at the University of Warwick. His debut novel, We Are The End, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2017. His second novel, Telenovela, was published in November 2025. 
In this episode, Gonzalo reflects on writing in English after leaving Chile, and on the distance a new language can create — from place, from memory, and from inherited histories.
We talk about family, politics, and storytelling, and about the freedom that comes from approaching language as something fluid, playful, and alive.

Ledia Xhoga (pronounced Joga) is a fiction writer and playwright. She was born and raised in Tirana, Albania and currently lives in Brooklyn. Her debut novel Misinterpretation was published by Tin House Books (US & Canada) and Daunt Books (UK). Misinterpretation was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, the recipient of a New York City Book Award, Finalist for Center For Fiction First Novel Prize and a Best of 2024 Book by Debutiful. Her work has been published in Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Brooklyn Rail, Large Hearted Boy, Intrepid Times, Hobart and other journals.
In this episode, Ledia reflects on writing in English as an Albanian author, and on the uncertainties and freedoms that come with choosing a second language.
We talk about interpretation as both a literary practice and a way of living, about insecurity and voice, and about how the idea of home shifts over time.