Designed to encourage international publishers to translate works by Scottish writers, the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund, now in its third year, has allocated over £13,000 to overseas publishing houses.
The fund, administered by Publishing Scotland on behalf of Creative Scotland, was launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2015 and has once again supported a fantastic array of international publishers and a great diversity of Scottish writing.
Thirteen titles were supported in this round with priority given to the translation of contemporary literature, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, writing for children and graphic novels. Assessment criteria includes the merit of the work to be translated, financial need of the publisher, track record of publisher and translator, and the proposed marketing plan. Classics and texts from the past are supported if they are important “pathfinder” works of literature encouraging interest in Scottish writing as a whole.
The following publishers and titles were successful and awarded funds:
- Edicions Sidilla, Girona to translate The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
- Edizioni Medusa, Milan to translate The Bonniest Companie by Kathleen Jamie
- Folio Verlag, Vienna to translate The Nessman by Alasdair Campbell
- Galaxia Gutenberg, Barcelona to translate You Have to Be Careful in the Land of the Free by James Kelman
- Guggolz Verlag, Berlin to translate Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
- IT-LIB AB, Gothenberg to translate The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
- Kastaniotis Editions, Athens to translate The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid
- Ladolfi Editore, Rome to translate Fiere by Jackie Kay
- Open Books Co, Gyeonggi-do (Korea) to translate His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
- Text Publishing, Moscow to translate The Comforters by Muriel Spark
- De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam to translate Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
- Volcano Libros, Madrid to translate Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie
- Vukovic & Runjic, Zagreb to translate The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
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Sasha de Buyl, Literature Officer at Creative Scotland said: “We are delighted to support Publishing Scotland with the translation of Scotland’s literature. This fund supports the creation of a living canon of Scottish literature with a global reach. This round of funding has enabled us to both revive Scottish classics and bring the words of Scotland’s most-loved living writers to new readers around the world.”
Round two of the fund will open in Autumn of 2017.
For more information about the Translation Fund and other funding opportunities visit the funding pages of publishingscotland.org or contact [email protected].
Notes to editors:
- The translation fund is worth a total of £30k, with two annual deadlines.
- Publishing Scotland is the network and development body for the Scottish publishing industry and is based in Edinburgh. It runs the Publishing Fellowship programme, hosts the national stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair, runs the “Go-See” fund for first-time attendance at book fairs and manages booksfromscotland.com.
Visit publishingscotland.org or visit @publishscotland on Twitter. - Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information please visit creativescotland.com; follow @creativescots on Twitter.