British Centre for Literary Translation

PEN Translates!

English PEN has launched a major new fund for literary translation. PEN Translates! is backed by Arts Council England and will distribute £120,000 per year to translators and publishers. The initiative will support up to 20 works of outstanding literary merit translated from any world language. Applications are open to all literary genres including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays. The fund is open to submissions from all UK-based publishers.

English PEN also produce a useful spreadsheet listing possible sources of funding for translators working in the UK and Europe.

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Stephen Spender Prize 2013

Entries are invited for the Stephen Spender Prize 2013. This annual prize is for poetry translation into English from any language. Closing date 24 May 2013

Find out how to apply on the Stephen Spender Trust website

Residencies

BCLT is a member of RECIT, the network for European literary translation houses. Visit the  RECIT  website for more information about residencies at  translation centres in the network.

BCLT hosts two Charles Wallace India trust residencies per year for translators from India. Unfortunately we are not able to offer a residency programme for translators from other languages.

Max Geilinger Translation Grants

Applications for a Max Geilinger translation grant are open to professional translators who are translating a work of Swiss literature into English or translating an English-language work into German, French, Italian, or Rhaeto-Romanic. They are worth CHF 2’000.- each and include a one-month stay at the Translation House Looren.

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EU Grants for Literary Translation

The European Union’s Culture Programme (2007-2013) contains a financial strand dedicated to supporting literary translation, with the aim of enabling the widest possible dissemination of European literature. Grants from 2,000 to 60,000 EUR are available for publishing houses or publishing groups for the translation of fiction in all its forms including novels, short stories, comic strips, plays and poetry.

More about EU grants for literary translation

John Dryden Translation Competition 2012-13

Sponsored jointly by BCLT and the British Comparative Literature Association

Prizes are awarded for the best unpublished literary translations from any language into English.

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Payment Rates for Literary Translation

The Translators Association (Society of Authors) has agreed an increase in the suggested minimum rate for literary translation.

It now stands at £88.50 per 1,000 words for prose and £1.10 per line for poetry with a minimum of £32 per poem.

Literature Across Frontiers

A European platform for literary exchange and a network of partner organisations.

The LAF programme includes initiatives in policy, publications, translator training and skills development. Literature Across Frontiers is based at the Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture, Aberystwyth University.

Find out more about Literature Across Frontiers

Three Percent?  Read the new LAF report (February 2013) on how much translated literature is published in the UK.

Arts Council England

Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme helps artists and arts organisations in England carry out their work, including funding translation costs for specific projects.

More about funding opportunities from Grants for the Arts

Ernst Jünger Translation Competition

The German Department at the University of Bristol invites translations from German into English of extracts from some of Ernst Jünger’s travel writings. Prizes will be awarded to four entries, with one category limited to entries from current undergraduate students, and numerous book prizes will also be awarded, courtesy of Jünger’s publisher, Klett-Cotta. The deadline for submission of entries is 1 July 2013.

Find out how to apply at the Ernst Jünger Translation competition website