Latest news
Italy: Introducing Calibro, a confederation of authors
A new organization has been founded in Italy to represent the main authors’ categories in the publishing industry: writers, literary translators, illustrators, and comic book writers have now joined forces in Calibro, Confederazione Autrici e Autori del Libro (Confederation of Book Authors).
AI: Open letter to EU Ministers of Culture
On 13 May, EU national ministers responsible for culture policies will convene in Brussels for the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council. Ahead of this meeting, Spain and Portugal have called for a discussion on the value of the cultural and creative sectors in AI development, focusing on the importance of safeguarding copyright and related rights, as well as ensuring transparency in the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice under the AI Act.
Denmark: new agreements on the use of generative AI
A long and hard, but in the end fruitful dialogue between the Danish Translators Association, the Danish Authors Society and the Danish Publishers Association has led to a mutual agreement on crediting practices when it comes to translators and post-editors of machine translation. The industry-wide statement confirms that post-editing of machine translations should not be eligible for PLR and includes a recommendation for publishers on how to credit post-editors of machine translations so as to avoid illegitimate access to PLR-remuneration.
Counterpoint
Counterpoint is an e-zine for everyone interested in literary translation. Whether you are a translator, publisher, agent, researcher, student or journalist, or just have a general interest in literature across borders, the European book market, and in the people that shape both, there will be something in Counterpoint of interest to you.
We report on what’s going on inside CEATL, and we look outside as well. We present feature articles about translators and translating and deal with the broad cultural, artistic and economic context of our work. We intend Counterpoint to live up to its name and be a place where independent and sometimes contrasting voices come together and form a stronger and more enthralling whole, much like the art of literary translation itself.
Counterpoint is free of charge and published twice a year in English and French.
This month we present…
STL (Poland)
CEATL’s AGM will be in Krakow in May, and therefore we would like to introduce the Polish Literary Translators Association (STL)!
‘We have been active for fifteen years, bringing together over 550 professional translators of literature in Poland and abroad,’ the Board tells us. ‘Thanks to the divisions’ partial autonomy we are gaining ever more visibility.’
STL pursues visibility for literary translator via initiatives like ‘Translators on the covers’ which promotes the idea of translators’ names being featured on the covers of their publications. They also encourage members to maintain a social media presence and routinely publish their profiles on the STL website as part of the ‘Translators on themselves’ cycle. ‘We also offer student practice opportunities, allowing undergraduates of language studies to acquaint themselves with the translator community from up close,’ says the Board.
STL has published a model contract, to improve the working conditions, and participates in government work to improve working standards, including implementation of the EU DSM directive. ‘We also closely follow attempts to increase the share of machine translation in the literary translation field and limit the role of translators to post-editing,’ adds the Board.
‘We aspire to make the nature of literary translation more familiar to both readers and people interested in entering the profession. Wide-ranging information on this subject is published on the STL website and our social media profiles. We are continually working toward the professionalization of our Association, so that we can keep growing and continue to serve the community of literary translators in Poland.’
It goes to show that together, translators can achieve a lot in fifteen years. Quite inspirational!