News from our members

They work hard, but earn little: freelancers in the Italian publishing sector

Over the last few months, Acta (https://www NULL.actainrete NULL.it/), the Italian association of freelancers, which is a member of EFIP (https://freelancersweek NULL.org/about/european-forum-of-independent-professionals-efip/) (European Forum of Independent Professionals), has undertaken research on the subject, involving editors, translators, graphic designers and illustrators, both freelance and employed. The survey was carried out through focus groups in Milan and Rome, dozens of individual interviews and two online surveys, disseminated thanks to the collaboration with the literary translators’ union SLC-Strade (http://www NULL.traduttoristrade NULL.it/) and the illustrators’ association AI – Autori di Immagini (http://www NULL.autoridimmagini NULL.it/). →

Frankfurt homage inspires Czech translators to join forces in an open letter to publishers

At Frankfurt International Book Fair, translators were paid a homage by the Norwegian writer Erika Fatland, who said that “Translators, who are often ignored, are the heroes of literature that I deal with every day.” They were also praised by the Norwegian Minister of Culture, Trine Skei Grande, who commented that “the Nobel Peace Prize should go to translators because they do a tremendous job in helping us read each other’s stories and thereby understanding each other.” These two declarations inspired Czech translators to join forces and write an open letter to publishers (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/obecprekladatelu/photos/pb NULL.183416178503538 NULL.-2207520000 NULL.0 NULL./1346843902160754/?type=3&theater). →

Awarding of the 2019 Bastian Prize 2019 for translated literature into Norwegian

The 2019 Bastian Prize for Outstanding Literary Translation was awarded in the course of the International Translation Day celebrations in Oslo on 26 September 2019. The Bastian is the annual translation prize of the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators’ (Norsk Oversetterforening).

The Bastian Prize 2019 was awarded to Sverre Dahl (http://oversetterforeningen NULL.no/bastianprisen-2019-tildelt-sverre-dahl/) for his translation of Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll. →

Call for applications: funded residencies for translators of Italian literature (deadline: 30 June 2019)

The Casa delle Traduzioni in Rome (http://www NULL.comune NULL.roma NULL.it/pcr/it/bib_casa_trad_en NULL.page), a public library and cultural centre specializing in the subject of translation, awards funded residencies for translators working from Italian into their native language: six scholarships to cover the costs of travel and a four-week stay for European translators, and two scholarships to cover the costs of travel and a four-week stay for translators coming from countries outside Europe. →

Inside the translator’s head – maybe the first comic book ever about the work of translators

Sitting for hours and typing away? With their noses in books and dictionaries? Aha, only apparently so! The lives of translators are full of exciting adventures and extraordinary experiences, although most of these happen in their heads.

W głowie tłumaczy (‘Inside the translator’s head’) is the first comic (maybe even on a global scale, though we can’t be certain) about translators and their work: about the history of translation going far back to biblical and even prehistoric times, about the chain in which the translator is but a single link, about different types of translations, but most of all: about what goes on in the head of a person translating from one language to another. →

Basque translators met Bulgarian colleagues (17-19 October 2018)

Last year representatives from EIZIE (Euskal Itzultzaile, Zuzentzaile eta Interpreteen Elkartea, the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language) traveled to Slovenia (http://www NULL.eizie NULL.eus/en/Jarduerak/esloveniasolasaldiak) as part of the New Translators (http://www NULL.eizie NULL.eus/en/Jarduerak/itzultzaile_berriak) programme, and this year we were in Bulgaria October 17-19 to discuss the importance of translation in the development of literature and in Basque culture, among other things. →

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. →

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’. →

Italian Translators’ Association STRADE addresses AmazonCrossing with an open letter

A panel on how to become a literary translator, organised by Amazon Publishing on 10 March 2018 within the Milan book fair ‘Tempo di Libri’ (http://www NULL.tempodilibri NULL.it/event/voglio-fare-il-traduttore-preparazione-opportunit-soddisfazioni-e-rischi-dellaltro-autore), was the occasion for Italian translators’ associations to follow up on a dialogue with AmazonCrossing about their contracts with translators. →

Positive note in Dutch Cultural Policy 2018 – 2021

On 12 March 2018, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven, presented the Cultural Policy for 2018 to 2021. Two positive points stand out: after years of austerity, the government will start making investments in culture again and secondly, reasonable remuneration for workers in the sector is explicitly mentioned. →

Negotiations on new contract follow successful talks between the Swedish Writers’ Union and the Bonnier Publishing Group

In late November last year the Translators’ section of the Swedish Writers’ Union (http://www NULL.forfattarforbundet NULL.se/) recommended its members to not sign any new deals with the Bonnier Group.

The Swedish Standard Contract was cancelled last summer and in late autumn Bonnier had presented a draft contract that was unacceptable to the literary translators. →

Three cases of plagiarism in Bulgaria

In the past year the Bulgarian Translators’ Union (http://www NULL.bgtranslators NULL.org/) (BTU) has dealt with a number of cases of translation plagiarism.

Last March Prof. Ana Dimova, literary translator and BTU member, published an article entitled The (Un)known Joseph Roth: Translation or Transcript in the renowned literary newspaper Literaturen Vestnik (https://litvestnik NULL.wordpress NULL.com/). →

Bulgarian Translators’ Union honours translator Iglika Vassileva

At the end of 2017 the Bulgarian Translators’ Union (http://www NULL.bgtranslators NULL.org/) organised an evening dedicated to literary translator Iglika Vassileva and her interpretation of the works of Virginia Woolf in Bulgarian. It was the twentieth anniversary of the first publication of Vassileva’s translation of To the Lighthouse and a birthday anniversary of the admired translator. →

Where are the translators? Now in book clubs too! (Spain)

In collaboration with two bookshops in Madrid and Barcelona, Casa del Libro Gran Vía and Casa del Libro Passeig de Gràcia, ACE Traductores has launched the Club de Lectura Traducida, a very particular book club where readers will have the opportunity to share their reading experience with the translator of the book in question. →

Basque association visited Slovenia

Building on last year’s New Translators programmme (http://www NULL.eizie NULL.eus/en/Jarduerak/itzultzaile_berriak), two representatives of EIZIE (Euskal Itzultzaile, Zuzentzaile eta Interpreteen Elkartea, the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language) travelled to Slovenia this year to take part in discussions about the spread of Basque culture and translation. →

Swedish Writer’s Union advocates boycott of new contract from Bonnier Publishing Group

The Swedish Writers’ Union is advising translators in Sweden against entering into agreements with all publishing companies within the Bonnier Publishing Group, Sweden’s largest publisher. Eleven companies have been declared non grata by the Union.

This comes after the Bonnier Group introduced a new Draft Contract earlier this year, which is to be used by all its subsidiaries and which includes many changes for the worse for translators. →

Dutch association starts video campaign to raise awareness of illegal downloading of e-books

The number of users of e-readers is increasing – a positive development, as it offers opportunities to bring a broader readership into contact with a diverse range of books. But it is also important to consider the negative consequences.

E-books are illegally downloaded and distributed on a large scale. As a result, writers and translators are increasingly missing out on revenue.

→

STRADE demands state foundation for the support of literary translation and other news from Italy

It has been a busy autumn for the Italian Union of Literary Translators Strade. (http://www NULL.traduttoristrade NULL.it/)

Starting at the beginning of October, the association was one of the main co-operating partners of the Migrant Literatures Festival (http://www NULL.festivaletteraturemigranti NULL.it/) in Palermo, Sicily, which hosted a series of events under the title “Lost (and Found) in Translation”. →

Macron: we owe translators a lot

At the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, the French president Emmanuel Macron paid homage to the translator’s profession, and announced the creation of a “real” prize in France for translation into French (Note: a number of well regarded translation prizes already exist in France).

“Knowledge of language is knowledge of books, and such is the eminent role played by translators that I cannot speak here, before you, without paying them the homage we owe them, because translation is the first thing our diplomats do, indeed it is sometimes the heart of what they do. →

Lecture on literary translation and Nazism, protests against Neo-Nazi March in Gothenburg – International Translation Day 2017 in Sweden

From 28 September to 1 October 2017, Gothenburg Book Fair (https://goteborg-bookfair NULL.com) hosted ´Room for Translation´, a programme with talks on literary translation. International Translation Day (30 September) was celebrated with a panel discussion about ‘Strategies of Loneliness’ – three renowned translators discussed loneliness and cooperation in our profession as well as lust for translation, all in honour of St Jerome (Hieronymus). →

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