International Literary Translation & Creative Writing Summer School, 21 - 27 July 2019

Delivered by the British Centre for Literary Translation in partnership with the National Centre for Writing

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The annual BCLT Summer School brings together writers and translators for an intensive, one-week, residential programme of hands-on translation and creative writing practice. For most language-specific workshops, groups have the unique opportunity to work on a collaborative translation with both the author in residence and the workshop leader. For translators working from any other languages there are two multilingual workshops, one for poetry and one for prose. These are designed for translators working from any language into English.

All workshops are designed to encourage collaboration and peer learning in a small group setting (maximum of 14 translators in a group).

During the week, the workshops are complemented by creative writing workshops for all participants and also plenary sessions, such as publishing panels and lectures. 

Watch a video of the 2017 summer school to find out more about how the week works and visit our 'Frequently Asked Questions' page for more details.

The 2019 workshops will be:

1) French to English & English to French

Funded by the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada/Association des traducteurs et traductrices littéraires du Canada 

Workshop leader - Arianne Des Rochers

Author - Nathanaël 

Workshop participants will be provided with two thematically-related excerpts from the author’s genre-bending writing—one in French, the other in English. Both excerpts explore the same preoccupations with regards to translation and the concept of (un)translatability; as such, and although they differ on the level of form, they already function, in a metaphorical sense, as one another’s translation. The participants will be asked to translate these already-"translated” texts and to critically reflect on the nature and the modalities of translation practice. Both excerpts—which fluctuate between abstract, poetic prose and critical writing—present unique challenges for translation, and we will focus on the creative, transformative, and productive aspects of literary translation throughout the workshop. Discussions will take place in both French and English, and collective translation will be facilitated in both directions.

2) Italian to English

Funded by Pro Helvetia

Workshop leader - Shaun Whiteside

Author - Elvira Dones

Please note that all sucessful Italian workshop applicants will receive a £400 bursary and £100 travel bursary funded by Pro Helvetia.

3) Multilingual Poetry 

Workshop leader - Clare Pollard

4) Multilingual Prose with a particular focus on Children's & Young Adult Fiction

Workshop leader - Daniel Hahn

5) Slovenian to English

Funded by the AHRC - Open World Research Initiative Project - 'Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community'

Workshop leader - Olivia Hellewell

Author - Goran Vojnović

Mobility grants are available via the Slovenian Book Agency. Go to our bursaries page to find out more.

6) Spanish to English

Funded by the AHRC - Open World Research Initiative Project - 'Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community'

Workshop leader - Anne McLean

Author - Lina Meruane 

7) Training the Trainer

Find out more about this workshop strand specifically for experienced literary translators that would like to train to lead literary translation workshops.

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The 2019 Summer School is kindly supported by Arts Council England, Arts & Humanities Research Council - Open World Research Initiative - Cross Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community Project, Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Literary Translators’ Association of Canada/Association des traducteurs et traductrices littéraires du Canada, Pro Helvetia, Québec Government Office, London, Slovenian Book Agency and University of Manchester.

© Photography by Anita Staff - www.anitastaff.com

There are two packages to choose from:

2019 Residential Package - £700 including all tuition, accommodation for 6 nights on the beautiful UEA campus in a single en-suite room, breakfast, morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch and dinner.

• There will be a mixture of dinners, including buffets, a BBQ and a celebratory closing event with wine.
• Wednesday will be a free afternoon and evening where afternoon refreshments and evening dinner are not included.

2019 Non-residential Package - £400 including all tuition, morning and afternoon refreshments and lunch.

• The non-residential package includes opening and closing events with wine. There will be an option to book onto other evening meals if you would like to attend them (for an extra cost).
• Wednesday is a free afternoon and evening where afternoon refreshments are not included.

Details of any bursaries that are available in 2019 can be found here.

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