Welcome

Europe: a cultural and linguistic patchwork, joined together by an age-old tradition of intensive exchange. Written texts play an important role in this exchange, because literature (in the broad sense) is the place where living cultures store their capital: if you want to understand another culture, you must read its books. For this reason, literary translation is fundamental to everything Europe represents. In the famous words of Umberto Eco: ‘The language of Europe is translation.’

However, no literary translation is possible without the knowledge, skills and artistic talent of the translator. As a council that brings together 28 literary translators’ associations from 24 countries, representing a total of some 8,500 individual authors, CEATL is the main European interlocutor in the field of literary translation. Its two principal goals are the exchange of information and best practice between member countries, and the defence of translation quality in a European context. CEATL is a member of Culture Action Europe.