I’m a writer living in the southwest of Ireland. I also work as a translator and a freelance creative director.
What I can help with
1.
Writing
I’ve written for global newspapers and niche magazines, start-up brands and major sporting events. I’ll try my hand at anything, but my main interests lay with travel, culture, sports, and food.
2.
Translation
I spent almost ten years living and working around Italy. Along the way, I learned the language and I love working in Italian whenever possible. I regularly translate for brands and major publications and a few years ago I translated a book for the always excellent Bluetrain Publishing.
3.
Creating cool stuff
Publishers, travel companies, clothing brands, PR agencies, golf tournaments, bike races, national tourism boards. At first glance they don’t have a lot in common, but scratch the surface and they were all after the same thing: Compelling writing and creative, original ways to tell their stories.
4.
Building your brand
I love working with new people – especially when they’re trying to create something special. If you’ve got a new brand that needs to find its voice, or an established one that needs a refresh, I want to hear about it.
Some work
Siena, a city of a hundred charms
Every scar (Translation)
Creative direction + copywriting
Copywriting + translation
Giro d’Italia: The Story of the World’s Most Beautiful Bike Race
Pantani was a god (Translation)
Ciao Ago
A coastal cliff walk to a gourmet pub
Reviews
“A marvellous account … and a tremendously exciting story.”
— The Guardian
“O’Brien wonderfully captures the colorful characters and landscapes that have shaped a century of Italy’s national cycling race … [He] has written an excellent, detailed narrative that expertly places the Giro within the context of modern Italian history.”
— Publishers Weekly
“We have Colin O’Brien to thank for this translation; his proven understanding of all things Italian would have helped him with the challenge of making sense of all the dialects and colloquialisms that complicated the original Italian text.”
— Road.cc
About me
I’m a freelance writer based in Ireland, but I’ve spent a large part of my life in Italy. Like most freelancers, I wear several hats, and work regularly as a journalist, copywriter, translator, and creative director.
Over the years, I’ve written for some of the leading publications globally. I’ve also translated for magazines, brands, and book publishers. And I was a ghostwriter once but I’m not allowed to talk about that.
My first book, Giro d’Italia: The Story of the World’s Most Beautiful Bike Race, is published by Pursuit Books in the UK and Pegasus in the US. It appears in translation in Italy by Mondadori, in Poland by Wydawnictwo SQN, and in the Netherlands by Uitgeverij Brandt.
I’m currently working on my next book.
Colin O'Brien 