Originally a farm girl from the Free State in South Africa, I have a Sesotho name, Puleng, which means rain. I am a translator and editor, and lover of words and books. A reluctant-townie-turned-city-girl-and-international-resident. Cookbook compiler. Lapsed musician. Occasional psychologist. Insatiably curious.

My love for working with words happened quite accidentally. Perhaps serendipitously, is the word because my first translation/editing/writing project presented itself through a confluence of circumstances I had little control over. I’d never worked on any book or publication before, and I had to do it because there was no one else. With my background in classical music and psychology, it was an opportunity I wouldn’t have found at any publishing house. I loved it.

Gogo’s Kitchen was a traditional South African recipe book, simultaneously published in English and Polish, for the South African Embassy in Warsaw (where we lived for five years). But that’s a story for a bottle of wine.

I had a meticulous British editor who had worked for MacMillan before she retired. She taught me all the basics of the editing process and the making of books. Gogo’s Kitchen became one of the winners at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards of 2008. 

I have done translations and edits in many different fields since then, but this blog is not about work. I’d like to play and experiment with my own words, and share what I find interesting and captivating with my readers. Words take us places. Their pull is irresistible, they tell our stories and show us the spaces we traverse between Openings and Endings.

Find out more about my translating and editing services at www.helenwordemporium.com.