CEATL - Maison des Auteurs - Rue du Prince royal 87 - 1050 Bruxelles - Belgium
Conseil Européen des Associations de Traducteurs Littéraires
Czech translators of the Nordic languages have founded an independent professional association: Překladatelé Severu (Czech Translators of the North).
Its aim is to improve translators’ pay and working conditions, disseminate information about contracts with authors and support the publication of quality translations, by, among a number of ways, training new translators and editors. →
The main objectives of the support for literary translation projects, granted by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Union, were to support cultural and linguistic diversity; to strengthen the transnational circulation and diversity of high quality literary works in the long term; to improve access to these literary works in the EU and beyond as all neighbourhood countries have been included, and to reach new audiences for European translated literature. →
On 30 November 2018 Françoise Wuilmart, literary translator and one of CEATL’s founding members, was interviewed at the University of Western Australia. The interview took place on the initiative of Prof. Alexandra Ludewig, head of the department of translation studies (https://study NULL.uwa NULL.edu NULL.au/Courses/translation-studies).
Graduates of the department work as professional literary translators or use their bilingualism or multilingualism in other professions. →
On 9 October 2018 CEATL’s Working Group on Copyright met in Warsaw. As part of their meeting they organised a public event on translators’ rights.
A podcast of the meeting, held in English, is now available.
Please click here (https://naprzeklad NULL.podbean NULL.com/e/battling-for-money-and-better-status-for-translators-across-europe-ceatl-meeting-in-warsaw/) to hear what seven CEATL delegates, translators themselves, have to say about CEATL, translators’ rights, the situation of literary translators in Europe and actions taken on European and national level. →
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). →
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. →
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. →
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. →
This year, the annual meeting of the CEATL will take place in Copenhagen, and as part of this gathering, the delegates and the general public are invited to a special edition of the literary event The Red Couch.
On Friday 11 May, literary translator Niels Brunse is in conversation with colleague François-Eric Grodin on borders in literary translation: on being a mediator of literature across cultural and linguistic boundaries and on limitations and possibilities in translation as an art form. →
After the Board Report and the Treasury Report had been accepted, as well as the minutes of the last AGM in Barcelona, a new Executive Board was elected:
Morten Visby – chairman of the Board / président du conseil d’administration (Danish Translators’ Association)
Lara Hölbling Matković – secretary-general / secrétaire général (Croatian Literary Translators’ Association (DHKP))
Shaun Whiteside – treasurer / trésorier (Translators Association, UK)
Bjørn Herrman – vice-president / vice-président (Norsk Oversetterforening, Norway)
Kateřina Klabanová – secretary of the Board / secrétaire du conseil d’administration (Obec Překladatelů, Czech Republic)
During the AGM the delegates heard extensive reports on the working groups and their future projects. →
This year, CEATL’s annual meeting will take place in Utrecht, The Netherlands, from 10 to 13 May. Capitalising on the presence of literary translators from more than 30 countries, the Dutch hosting association, Auteursbond (http://auteursbond NULL.nl/) [‘The Authors’ Guild’]), has joined forces with the Utrecht Literature House (http://www NULL.hetliteratuurhuis NULL.nl/) to organise a special translation programme on Thursday, 11 May within the International Literature Festival Utrecht (ILFU). →
Twenty-one translators’ associations, all members of CEATL, joined forces to create a short video to promote the importance of literary translators.
As the 400th anniversary year of William Shakespeare’s death drew to a close, the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations breathed life into the Bard of Avon’s most famous line in twenty-one European languages, and extended its best wishes for 2017. →
On 1 January 2017 nine European organisations (British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT (http://www NULL.bclt NULL.org NULL.uk/)), European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations (CEATL), Deutscher Übersetzerfonds (http://www NULL.uebersetzerfonds NULL.de/), Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE (https://www NULL.elte NULL.hu/en/)), Expertisecentrum Literair Vertalen (ELV (http://literairvertalen NULL.org/)), Fondazione Universitaria San Pellegrino (FUSP (http://www NULL.fusp NULL.it/en)), University of Leuven (http://www NULL.kuleuven NULL.be/english/), Nederlandse Taalunie (http://over NULL.taalunie NULL.org/dutch-language-union), Utrecht University (https://www NULL.uu NULL.nl/en)) officially launched the PETRA-E Network for the Education and Training of Literary Translators. →
On 31 August 2016, Turkish translator, editor, critic, author and linguist Necmiye Alpay (70) was arrested. Alpay is a member of the Turkish Association of Translators (ÇEVBİR (http://cevbir NULL.org NULL.tr/)), represented in CEATL.
Necmiye Alpay has always been a staunch defender of freedom of expression and a voice calling for peace between Turkey and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). →
30 September is celebrated in the professional translation and interpreting communities as International Translation Day. Help celebrate this day by clicking on one of the pictures below (or click here or here) and send the CEATL e-card (featuring Adéla Tilcerová’s and Roman Tilcer’s winning image in our picture contest) to friends, colleagues, publishers, literary critics, etc. →
On 26 August, the final meeting of the PETRA-E Project was held in the Collège Européen des Traducteurs Littéraires de Seneffe. The Framework of Reference, now available in eight languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish and Bulgarian – Portuguese to follow soon), was officially presented to Konrad Fuhrmann, a representative of the European Commission. →
The PETRA-E(ducation) Framework for Literary Translation, which maps out a literary translator’s competencies, has been completed.
The Framework addresses the recommendations highlighted during the initial PETRA 2011 conference on the teaching of literary translation in Europe. The PETRA 2011 conference recommended the development of a learning framework which can be used to develop the education of literary translators, and also to create opportunities for collaboration and exchange between schools and universities teaching literary translation. →
The Annual General Meeting of CEATL’s national representatives, was held in Barcelona between 2 – 4 June 2016 and organised by AELC (http://www NULL.escriptors NULL.cat/), ACEC (http://www NULL.acec-web NULL.org/) and ACE Traductores (http://www NULL.ace-traductores NULL.org/).
The AGM opened with an exhibition of posters with SWOT analyses of the individual associations. →
Representing 10,000 literary translators in 28 countries, the European Council of Literary Translators Associations (CEATL) has answered the European Commission’s consultation on “the role of publishers in the copyright value chain” (https://ec NULL.europa NULL.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/public-consultation-role-publishers-copyright-value-chain-and-panorama-exception) and wishes to make the following comments on the question of granting neighbouring rights to publishers in EU law:
* Contracts already grant publishers all rights necessary to exploit the works and defend them against infringement. →
This year CEATL’s competition has been an international picture contest called “The Face of Translation”. CEATL invited photo amateurs to create sparky and clever photographs reflecting the existence and importance of literary translations and literary translators, their challenges, and their role in literature. Any topic could be used, as long as it was in some way related to literary translation. →