Language work shaped by fiction, translation, and a life between cultures
I’m Carlos Adán Cabrera, a U.S. English translator, editor, copywriter, and localization specialist based in Barcelona. I’m also an avid reader, language enthusiast and an award-winning writer.
I work mainly from Spanish, Catalan, and French into English, helping brands, agencies, publishers, organizations, and creative professionals turn multilingual content into clear, natural, culturally fluent English. I also take on selected English into Spanish projects when the subject matter, audience, and tone are a good fit.
My work sits somewhere between precision and voice. A translation has to be accurate, of course. An edited text has to be clean. Copy has to be clear. But language also has to move well. It has to sound like someone meant it that way.
That is the part I care about most.
Language work with a writer’s ear
I’ve worked in translation, proofreading, localization, editing, transcreation, and multilingual content for more than 10 years, across fields including marketing, tourism, hospitality, legal, financial, life sciences, medical, technical, literary, arts, culture, fashion, and web content.
Before freelancing, I worked as an in-house translator and proofreader in Barcelona, translating and reviewing Spanish, Catalan, and French into U.S. English for corporate, hospitality, fashion, life sciences, and marketing clients. Since then, I’ve continued working with agencies, companies, and creative clients who need language that is accurate, readable, and ready to use.
I’m comfortable working with style guides, glossaries, translation memories, CAT tools, SEO-informed copy, brand voice guidelines, and editorial requirements. I use tools such as Trados, Wordfast, Memsource/Phrase, and Smartling, but the real work still happens at sentence level: tone, rhythm, meaning, structure, and the reader’s experience.
Writing, editing, and literary background
Alongside my translation work, I’m also a fiction writer and creative writing instructor. My stories and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, The Adroit Journal, Carve Magazine, Kweli, Barrelhouse, The Acentos Review, and other publications.
I hold an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco and a BA in English from UCLA. That background shapes the way I read and work: carefully, closely, and with attention to what a text is trying to do.
For some projects, that means staying almost invisible. For others, it means helping the language become sharper, warmer, more persuasive, or more alive.
How I can help
I offer:
Translation & Localization
Proofreading & Editing
Bilingual Revision
Transcreation & Copywriting
SEO-informed web copy
Creative and editorial language support
If you need a text translated, edited, adapted, or rewritten in English, send me the language pair, word count, deadline, audience, and a short note about what the text needs to do.
