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How public funding could help the circulation of translated books
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Promotion :
they participate in international book fairs to raise awareness of their own funding programmes and of the books and authors they represent;
they work with national publishers to promote their books abroad either by representing those works themselves and/or by coordinating publishers’ participation at international book fairs;
they produce information in both print and online formats that promote their national literatures;
either individually or in cooperation with other funding organisations, they secure, direct and coordinate ‘guest of honour’ status at international book fairs, for example Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA) (Frankfurt 2019), the Baltic states (London 2018/19), Common Ground – Literature from south-east Europe: Region in Focus at Leipzig Book Fair 2020–2022, or the Flemish Fund for Literature, in cooperation with the Dutch Foundation for Literature;
in some countries, they operate education programmes that promote an awareness of the profession, working in schools and universities to develop an appreciation of the skills a translator needs.
Training and networking :
they offer residencies and workshops to literary translators to enable them to specialise and develop enhanced skills by immersing themselves in the culture and language of the works they are translating;
they offer mentorship schemes whereby older, more experienced translators train and advise new entrants to the profession;
they organise fellowships for visiting publishers and agents to encourage them to publish works from the host territory;
they organise promotional events for their literature in translation both locally and internationally, thereby stimulating conversations about the practice of literary translation and developing an audience for this type of work.
Funding :
they offer grants for outbound translation and, in some cases, for inbound translations as well (e.g. at the Centre National du Livre and Traduki), thereby creating a very broad ecology of translated literature in their home territories;
by default, as a result of their funding interventions, they can act as a benchmark for quality and can, in some cases, set the benchmark for the rates at which translators are paid.
Challenges faced by organisations that promote translation
NATIONAL TRANSLATION FOUNDATIONS/ AGENCIES SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED ON A STATUTORY BASIS AND ADEQUATELY RESOURCED WITH PERMANENT EXPERT PERSONNEL. Many translation funding organisations, particularly in smaller countries, operate in a precarious environment in which the stability and continuity of their funding and existence is not guaranteed. If national literatures are to be properly promoted abroad, and European books are to circulate easily across borders, national funding organisations must be established on a statutory or permanent basis. They should not
