My name is Michael Sommers and I am an American writer/journalist/translator and photographer. I currently spend my time between North America and Brazil (where I have lived primarily for the past 19 years).

I am completely trilingual (English, Portuguese, and French). I have not only studied Portuguese and French (completing the equivalent of a Masters degree in Histoire et Civilisations at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris, France), but have have lived, fully immersed, in Quebec (3 years), France (7 years), Portugal (1 year) and Brazil (19 years).

Aside from my experience performing quick turnarounds and working under tight deadlines as a freelance writer and journalist (contibuting to newspapers such as The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and the International Herald Tribune), my background in writing and editing has provided me with a literary sensibility and attentiveness to detail that means that my translation is not simply linguistically sound, but also extremely well-written and polished.

I have done freelance translating work for various clients, among them the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and Euro-RSCG (in Paris), and more recently for several local translation firms and various Brazilian university professors, as well as for the Fundação Gregório de Matos, the municipal ministry of Culture in the city of Salvador, Brazil.

Specialty areas include:
- academic articles (particularly in the humanities);
- press releases;
- travel and tourism material (I translated material for Louis Vuitton luxury travel guides);
- art and cultural exhibition texts;
- marketing texts/material (for businesses, government agencies)
- news and press articles

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions. I look forward very much to hearing from you and to the possibility of working together.