News – Page 2

The Miracle of the Little Prince – Translators in the picture at documentary festival IDFA in Amsterdam

The 30th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (https://www NULL.idfa NULL.nl/en/) (IDFA) takes place from 15 to 26 November 2018. One of the almost 300 documentaries screened at this festival is about the translator as the preserver of vulnerable languages and cultures.

In her film, The Miracle of the Little Prince (https://www NULL.idfa NULL.nl/en/film/f537a354-0762-4531-a7a8-5ab65a2753cb/the-miracle-of-the-little-prince) , director Marjoleine Boonstra shows the portrait of four translators who translate Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le petit prince into their own language and culture. →

New CEATL project, Small is Great, takes off – Catalan association organises the pilot seminar

The Catalan Writers’ Association (https://www NULL.escriptors NULL.cat/) (AELC) just took the first step of the Small is Great project, a new initiative of CEATL’s Working Group on Training and Education. On Wednesday 3 October, AELC organised a roundtable at the Liber book fair in Barcelona. The session ‘Small languages, big translations’, was a conversation between two editors and two literary translators (from Greek and Swedish into Catalan) conducted by AELC’s board member Jordi Martín Lloret (who is an editor and a literary translator, as well). →

Call for application: Paul Celan fellowships for translators 2019/2020 (deadline: 28 February 2019)

The program supports translations of canonical texts, contemporary key works in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies from Eastern to Western European languages or vice versa, or between two Eastern European languages. Special emphasis is put on translations of relevant works written by East European authors and/or female scholars. No applications for works of fiction and poetry are being accepted. →

Call for applications: International meeting for translators of German literature (Berlin / Leipzig, 17-24 March 2019)

From 17-24 March 2019 Literarisches Colloquium Berlin will host a seminar for professional translators of German literature. With financial support from the Robert Bosch Foundation and the German Translators’ Fund, and in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, S. Fischer Foundation, and the Pro Helvetia foundation, the seminar is open to 30 translators from all over the world. →

Czech translator takes a public stand against xenophobic comments

Michala Marková, a renowned translator from English and French, wrote an open letter to the Czech Radio Council, expressing her concerns about the unacceptable statement of one of its members, Tomáš Kňourek, who reacted to a broadcasted excerpt from her translation of The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Mr Kňourek called the author a ‘lecher’ dressed as a writer and his writing ‘filth’, irrelevantly attacked the United Kingdom and its approach to migration, mentioned the Muslim minority as ‘people’ in quotation marks, and implicitly suggested censorship would be welcome while attacking the editor in chief of the highly acclaimed radio station. →

16th edition of the ‘Literary Translation Days’ (5-7 October 2018, Rome, Italy)

From 5 to 7 October 2018, the 16th edition of ‘Giornate della Traduzione Letteraria’ (Literary Translation Days), organized by Stefano Arduini and Ilide Carmignani, will take place at Link Campus University of Rome, Italy. Translators, publishers, writers and scholars will take part in seminars and debates to analyse the issues and future perspectives for literary translators. →

Europe celebrates International Translation Day

On 24 May 2017, the United Nations General Assembyl recognised 30 September as International Translation Day, to be celebrated every year across the entire UN network. Translators’ associations all over Europe organise a variety of festive events. To name a few:

Austria

The Austrian association of literary translators (http://www NULL.literaturhaus NULL.at/lh/ueg/) has a tradition of celebrating International Translation Day together with the other translators’ and interpreters’ associations in Austria by taking turns in organising the event. →

Call for Applications: Artist-in-Residence-Programme in Vienna / Salzburg 2019 (Deadline: 30 September 2018)

In co-operation with KulturKontakt Austria, the Austrian Federal Chancellery makes available 50 residencies in Vienna and Salzburg for the year 2019.

The residency is designed to offer an opportunity to become familiar with the Austrian art scene and cultural environment and to make contact with Austrian artists. Residents are expected to complete a project during their stay. →

Agreement in lengthy contract conflict in Sweden

Swedish translators have entered into an agreement with the Bonnier Publishing Group almost a year to the day after the former Standard Contract between the Publishers’ Association and the Translators’ Section of the Swedish Writers’ Union was terminated.

Negotiations have been ongoing on different levels more or less constantly during the year between the Union (http://www NULL.forfattarforbundet NULL.se/) and Bonniers’. →

Call for applications: Prague City of Literature Residencies (Deadline 31 August 2018)

The project Prague City of Literature offers residency stays for foreign writers and translators. There are six residencies available for 2019, each lasts two months.

Prague City of Literature reimburses the resident for a return ticket, provides accomodation for free and a stipend of 600 euro per month.

For more details and the application form, please click here (https://www NULL.prahamestoliteratury NULL.cz/en/about/). →

Call for applications – Grants for promotional activities and translations from Catalan and Aranese literature (Deadline 5 October 2018)

The Institute Ramon Llull offers grants to carry out promotional activities focused on Catalan and Aranse literature, and taking place outside of the Catalan – or Aranese – speaking areas, during 2018.

The grant covers expenses for promotional events abroad focusing on Catalan and Aranese literature – international literary festivals, book launches and promotional campaigns for newly translated works. →

Call for applications: Funded residencies for translators of Italian literature (Deadline 17 July 2018)

The Casa delle Traduzioni (http://www NULL.comune NULL.roma NULL.it/pcr/it/bib_casa_trad_en NULL.page) in Rome, a public library and cultural centre specializing in the subject of translation, awards funded residencies for translators working from Italian into their native language. There are

four scholarships to cover the costs of travel and a two-week stay for European translators,
two scholarships to cover the costs of travel and a four-week stay for translators coming from countries outside Europe.

→

PEN International issues Case List of transgressions against freedom of expression

PEN International (https://pen-international NULL.org/) has just issued its annual Case List of transgressions against the freedom of expression. Affirming the idea that ‘Literature knows no frontiers and must remain common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals’ and the principle of ‘unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations’, PEN International has identified five patterns of oppression in 2017. →

Czech translators and their concerns at the Prague Book Fair (10–13 May 2018)

Translators enjoyed much attention at the last Prague Book Fair (https://www NULL.eepg NULL.org/index NULL.php?shortCutUrl=Prague-International-Book-Fair), visited by 46,000 book lovers, where as many as 26 countries participated in various programmes throughout the four days.

Apart from numerous readings organized by publishers and a complex introduction of literature from Latin America in the context of Czech book market, several major events highlighted our profession, thanks to the Czech Literary Centre (http://www NULL.culturenet NULL.cz/en/Czech-in/literature/czech-literary-centre/) (CLC). →

Call for nominations: Award from Institut Ramon Llull for literary translations from Catalan

The Institut Ramon Llul will award a prize of € 4,000 for a literary translation from Catalan. The nominated translation has to be the work of one translator and have been published in 2017.

Deadline: 7 June 2018

Details (in Catalan) can be found here. (https://www NULL.llull NULL.cat/catala/quisom/premis NULL.cfm)

CEATL publishes Guidelines for fair contracts

CEATL’s General Meeting adopted 10 May 2018 its Guidelines for fair contracts as a tool for establishing good practices in the literary translation sector. These guidelines are built on the hexalogue for good practice published by CEATL in May 2011.

The guidelines pay particular attention to the licensing of rights, moral rights, remuneration, accounting, acceptance of the translation and warranties to the publisher but also include a note on ‘work made for hire’ contracts. →

Call for applications: Grants from Basque Institute for literary translations (Deadline 4 June 2018)

The Basque Institute will concede grants for the translation of

written literary works originally published in Basque into other languages.
written literary works originally published in Spanish by authors resident in the Basque Autonomous Community into other languages (except Basque).

Deadline for application period: 4 June 2018

All the information in English can be found at the website of Etxepare Basque Institute (http://www NULL.etxepare NULL.eus/en/grants-for-literary-translations-2018). →

Call for applications: ‘Translating the North’ into Italian (deadline: 15 July 2018)

StradeLab (http://www NULL.traduttoristrade NULL.it/stradelab/), a cultural association linked with SLC-Strade, is organising ‘Laboratorio Nordico – Translating the North’, the first peer-to-peer seminar for literary translators from Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish into Italian. The seminar is funded by the Danish Arts Foundation (https://www NULL.kunst NULL.dk/english/danish-arts-foundation/), Icelandic Literature Center (http://www NULL.islit NULL.is/en), Norla (https://norla NULL.no/en/pages) and the Swedish Arts Council (http://www NULL.kulturradet NULL.se/en/In-English/). →

Call for application: ‘Laboratorio italiano’ in Switzerland (deadline: 30 July 2018)

Since 2015, Translation House Looren (https://www NULL.looren NULL.net/en/) has been running its ‘Laboratorio italiano’ programme, focusing on Switzerland’s third national language.

Following the major success of the first three years with both translators and local audiences,
Translation House Looren and its partners have decided to continue the project into the year 2021. →

What makes a translation great?

“It’s easy to say what a bad translation is. The ones that are accidentally jagged like the person wielding the scissors was drunk. The ones where someone has misunderstood the original, or perhaps misinterpreted it. The ones where all individuality has been smoothed out. But how do we identify a successful translation? →