This maiden issue of Encounters in translation is the first of two special issues on translational and narrative epistemologies. Contributors to both special issues were invited to reflect on the growing use of translation and narrative in a range of scholarly domains as tropes and lenses through which scholars in a variety of disciplines have attempted to reflect on their respective objects of enquiry, and on the interrelations between different kinds of knowledge. The editors attempt to situate the contributions to both issues within the broader context of the interdisciplinary study of narrative and translation. The broader discussion of these two key concepts is complemented by a brief account of the use of translation in two domains: Science and Technology Studies (focusing on Actor Network Theory) and medicine (focusing on the concept of Knowledge Translation).