News from our members

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.

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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). →

I love this place! – International Translation Day 2017 in Warsaw

As in previous years, EUNIC Warszawa, the European Commission Representation in Poland and the Polish Association of Literary Translators (http://stl NULL.org NULL.pl/) held a celebration in Warsaw on the occasion of International Translation Day. Throughout the day, thirteen classes were given by distinguished and experienced translators in high schools. →

Around the world in translation – International Translation Day 2107 in Basque Country

For International Translation Day, the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language (EIZIE (http://www NULL.eizie NULL.eus/)) launched an initiative to get one sentence in Basque translated into as many languages as possible.

The sentence was taken from a text (Berbelitzenak (http://www NULL.eizie NULL.eus/en/Argitalpenak/alebereziak/grafikoa)) written by Anjel Lertxundi, a Basque author, and is the following:

“Itzulpena ez da posible, baina itzulpenak bizi gaitu.”

Participants sent 35 translations in 21 languages (see here (http://www NULL.eizie NULL.eus/en/Jarduerak/bestelako_egitasmoak/munduari_itzulia)). →

“Invisible Authors” Spanish Campaign – International Translation Day 2017 in Spain

The Spanish Ministry of Culture and Education has launched the campaign “Autores invisibles” (“Invisible Authors”) to celebrate International Translation Day, and support translators and promote their visibility. This initiative is the result of the constant and continuous efforts of several translators’ associations (including ACE Traductores (http://www NULL.ace-traductores NULL.org/)) to increase awareness of the essential work carried out by translators. →

Danish language in focus on International Translation Day 2017

On 30 September, to celebrate International Translation Day 2017, the Danish Translators’ Association (http://danskforfatterforening NULL.dk/) is hosting a conference in Copenhagen on the topic ´Nuances in Danish: Renewal and/or Impoverishment´. The event will include a translators’ fair, workshops, talks on subtitling of the Norwegian TV-series ´Skam´, translating Astérix, marketing language, words as artwork, and a debate on the topic ´Who Determines Language?´

As has been the tradition for the last seven years, the international translation day celebration brings together translators from many fields, including state-authorised translators, interpreters, subtitlers, students and researchers of translation and literary translators. →

German translators started St Jerome’s week in Hamburg

German St-Jerome’s-Week – German ‘St Jerome’s Week ‘ – started in Hamburg on the evening of 25 September, when a therapy group of anonymous translators outed themselves as addicted to lobster, beauty, blood, music and bananas in the Hamburg Nachtasyl, by reading short passages from their translations.

The week goes on with around 50 readings, discussions and ‘transparent translator’ presentations in a dozen German cities and in Zurich as well as in 7 Goethe Institutes in Alexandria, Amsterdam, Kairo, Kiew, Nanjing, Peking, and Taschkent. →

Publication of the ‘Report on the economic value of book translation’ in Spain

ACE Traductores (http://ace-traductores NULL.org/) (Spain) has presented a Report on the economic value of book translation, prepared by the consulting agency AFI and financed by the Ministry of Culture and CEDRO, the main Spanish Reproduction Rights Centre.

Its main objective was to “check, get to know and quantify the economic value of book translation in Spain, taking into account not only the publishing figures but also the total amount of sales, whose impact, in the absence of statistics, is presumably higher”. →

Literary Translators into Spanish: Joining objectives on both sides of the Atlantic

Over recent months several national associations of literary translators into Spanish —from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Spain— have combined efforts to improve the working conditions of their Latin American members, as well as to contribute to the prestige of the profession and the development of culture by means of the exchange of information, experience and knowledge, and also to promote common training programmes. →

Swedish model contract for translators terminated, new strategies in the making

The Swedish Writers’ Union (http://www NULL.forfattarforbundet NULL.se/) and the Swedish Publishers’ Association agreed on a collective Model Contract for translators several decades ago. The contract has been re-negotiated a few times, but it has generally been respected and practiced in almost all cases where publishers have commissioned literary translations, whether the translator or the publisher have been members of the organizations that signed the contract or not. →

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