Who we are
History
CEATL is an international non-profit association (AISBL) under Belgian law, officially created in 1993 as a platform where literary translators’ associations from different European countries could exchange views and information, and join forces to improve status and working conditions of literary translators. Set up by 10 founder members, CEATL now has 28 member associations from 24 countries across Europe, representing some 8,500 individual authors. In recent years several associations from former Eastern Europe have joined us, as has the Turkish association Çevbir, and CEATL will continue to encourage associations in the new EU member states and in EU neighbouring countries to become members.
Definition
As a literary translation we consider any translation of which the translator is the author in the legal sense, i.e. any translation that, as a text of its own, is protected by copyright law. The term ‘literary’ is used without any value judgement.
Aims and objectives
CEATL has two sets of aims, one internal and one external. On the internal front we gather information on the situation of literary translation and translators in the member countries and share experiences and examples of best practice. On the external front we defend the legal, social and economic interests of literary translators in a European context, which includes EU lobbying and reacting publicly to trends or events impacting on our profession and on the quality of literary translation. We help individual member associations to strengthen the position of literary translators in their countries.
Procedure
The delegates from the member associations come together once a year at the annual general meeting, which is hosted by the associations in rotation. The CEATL executive committee is made up of at least three elected members, who serve for two years and are eligible to re-election. The executive committee fulfils the mandates voted at the annual general meeting and undertakes the necessary actions to further CEATL’s aims.
Executive committee 2009-2011
The current board was elected by the General Assembly in Oslo on 12 June, 2009. In view of CEATL’s increased level of activity the number of board members was raised to five.
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Martin de Haan President Vereniging van Schrijvers en Vertalers (VSenV), The Netherlands |
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Anna Casassas Vice-President Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC), Spain |
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Holger Fock Vice-President Verband deutschsprachiger Übersetzer (VdÜ), Germany |
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Katarína Bednárová Secretary Slovenská spoločnosť prekladateľov umeleckej literatúry (SSPUL), Slovakia |
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Alena Lhotová Treasurer Obec překladatelů, Czech Republic |
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News
- CEATL supports Denise Bottmann in her fight against plagiarism of literary translations.
- The Writers’ Union of Romania is now a member of CEATL.
- CEATL is participating in the European civil society platform on multilingualism.
- Read our survey of literary translators’ working conditions in Europe.
