My name is Ilona Chavasse. I have spent twenty years in UK trade publishing — as a book scout, and as rights director at three independent publishers — reading hundreds of manuscripts before they were finished, pitching them before they were ready, and thinking hard about what makes a story work and what gets in its way. Along the way, I’ve done line and other kinds of editing.
I have translated six books from Russian, and spent a great deal of time being someone else's most careful reader (and on the other end of an editor’s sharp pen): working out what an author intended, where the text delivers it, and where it isn’t doing itself justice. Translators are pinned between artistry and service — making the best text possible while keeping to the author's intentions — which means a gimlet eye and keeping your own taste out of the room.
I am also, in the hours not spent on other people's books, a writer - who has often needed to talk through a what-now with someone who would ask the right questions, tell me what was legible on the page, and when to step away from the shovel. So I know that calling a smart friend is a resource best used sparingly, if you want to keep the friend.
The Talking Cure is the professional version of that conversation — focused, patient, and entirely on your side.
Tell me where it hurts.
My translations include
When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu - “an enchanting translation” Publishers Weekly;“a lyrical and joyous translation” Orion Magazine
Russian Gothic by Aleksandr Skorobogatov - “excellent translator” New York Review of Books; “Chavasse’s English translation [is] as creepily compelling as the book deserves" Spectator
The Village at the Edge of Noon by Darya Bobyleva - “what a magnificent job of translation has been performed by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse, who gives us stylish prose both poetic and demotic by turns” Locus Magazine
I write fiction in two registers: form-consciously literary and slow-burn screwball.
I’ve also written about folk horror for Lithub and spoken to the Los Angeles Review of Books about the art of translation.
You can find me on Substack, writing about books and translation and occasionally reviewing as Miss Ada Doom (yes, the one from Cold Comfort Farm!)
“As a theatre producer I've overseen the development of many new scripts, and I know how easily writers become lost in their own work. Ilona has a rare ability to hear not only what's on the page but what the writer is reaching for beneath it. She identifies the story they're trying to tell and brings it into sharper focus without ever imposing herself on the work. Insight, intelligence and sensitivity combined — an exceptional creative collaborator.” Garry McQuinn
"Ilona line-edited my manuscript and the process has been seamless. Her insights have hugely helped the evolution of the manuscript, which has more clarity and precision as a result." Dan Kieran, author of Do: Start, The Book of Idle Pleasures, The Surfboard.
“Ilona's translation experience makes her an unusually attentive reader and incredibly precise editor - working with her was as illuminating as it was useful.” Nicholas Dimitroff, author of The Dealer of Realities
"Ilona has a meticulous eye, a gift for a verb and most importantly of all, true wit. She knows how to make a criticism an epiphany rather than an argument." David V Griffin, novel-in-progress