Guest lecture: Arabic Shakespeare: Three Lessons, Monday 25 April 2016

This looks like a really interesting event, and very appropriate to the year that's in it. For a taster of Professor Litvin's work on Shakespeare in the Arab world, see this interview.

                   Arabic Shakespeare: Three Lessons 

Dr Margaret Litvin (Boston University), Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor

Lecture Room 8, 21 Woodland Road, 25 April 2016, 5.00 PM - 6.30 PM

Why and how have Arab writers and theatre directors since 1900 deployed Shakespeare’s plays? Where did they get their Shakespeare to begin with? Setting aside the clichés about Shakespeare’s alleged “universality,” this talk explores several episodes from the Arab Shakespeare tradition to show how they can illuminate not only the Arab theatre world but, more broadly, the interplay between international art forms, local expressive needs, and the historically weighted ties between modern literary cultures.

Margaret Litvin is the author of Hamlet’s Arab Journey: Shakespeare’s Prince and Nasser’s Ghost (Princeton, 2011) and an Associate Professor of Arabic & Comparative Literature at Boston University. 

For questions about this event or concerning Professor Litvin’s visit please write Rebecca Gould at r.gould at bristol.ac.uk

STEM visuals in translation: project seeks co-researchers

Maybe of interest to some readers of this blog:

I saw on the European Society for Translation Studies Facebook page that a Lisbon- and New Mexico Tech-based research project, VISTAC (Visualising Science and Technology Across Cultures), is seeking co-researchers to look at STEM visuals in translation. They want to disseminate a survey in the main internet languages and are particularly interested in hearing from researchers who speak Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian or Spanish.

The last thing I read on this topic was a fascinating article by Liangyu Fu entitled 'Indigenizing visualized knowledge: translating Western science illustrations in China, 1870-1910' which is currently free to read on the Translation Studies website. But it would be great to read something more up to date too!

Council for British Research in the Levant Arabic scholarships

An opportunity which looks very interesting (plus, you get to visit the wonderful British Institute in Amman) (minus, website which seems slightly incoherent and difficult to find information on): 

Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) Arabic Bursary 

 

The CBRL Arabic Bursary comprises three elements:

• the full cost of tuition fees for the CBRL Academic Arabic Programme at IFPO;
• the reimbursement of one economy class return airfare between the UK and Beirut, Lebanon, up to the limit of £600;
• an accommodation allowance of £650.

Application forms may be obtained from www.cbrl.org.uk/fundingjobs/arabic-language-training or directly from the UK Administrative Secretary cbrl at britac.ac.uk. 

 The deadline for receipt of bursary applications is 18 April 2014.

Call for entries: China International Translation Contest 2013

Just came round on Edwin Gentzler's translation list, and may interest some of our readers.

Call for submissions: China International Translation Contest 2013
Sponsored by 
The Chinese Writers Association; China International Publishing Group (CIPG); Translators Association of China China International Translation Contest 2013 (CITC 2013) was launched in Beijing on September 2, 2013. It is co-hosted by the State Council Information Office, the Chinese Writers Association and the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), with the Translators Association of China being one of its organizers. It is the first translation contest in China that targets translators both home and abroad.

The CITC 2013 organizing committee has provided 30 pieces of contemporary Chinese short stories as source texts, and the participants can choose one or more of the stories to translate into one of the five (English, French, Russian, Spanish, or Arabic) languages. The submission deadline is February 28, 2014. The awarded pieces will be chosen from the submitted entries by the judging committee, and the top ones will be published by partner publishers of the target languages, namely: China International Publishing Group, Penguin Books, Hachette Livre (France), Editorial Popular (Spain), Oriental Literature Publisher (Russia), and Egypt-China Cultural Exchange Association.

Translators of the five languages who love Chinese culture and are dedicated to the translation of China's excellent contemporary works are all welcome to participate in this contest. As one of the organizers, the Translators Association of China will be in charge of the appraisal procedure. Translators from China and abroad, editors from well-established publishing companies and relevant experts will be invited as members of the judging committee. For each language, there will be a judging committee including at least five members.

For more details on submitting an entry, please see http://www.china.org.cn/arts/citc/index.htm.
For more information, please contact Hu Yuqing,Secretariat for the Translation Association of China, at hyq[at] tac-online.org.cn.

An evening of Arabic literature in translation, London, 1 February 2013

For readers within reach of London, this looks like a very interesting event:


An evening of Contemporary Arabic Literature in Translation
1 February 2013
7.30 – 10.00 pm
Venue: Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR

The Chartered Institute of Linguists: Translating Division is delighted to announce that Peter Clark, a well-known translator of contemporary Arabic novels into English, will be introducing an evening of excerpts of contemporary Arabic writing in the original and in English translation; he will speak about both the cultural context of Arabic-into-English translation and specific technical challenges.

The London-based Sudanese poet, Al-Saddiq al-Raddi, will then talk about translating poetry, and Sarah Maguire, the Director of the Poetry Translation Centre, will read her translations of some of Al-Saddiq’s poems. The Palestinian novelist, Selma Dabbagh, lives in London and writes in English: she will speak about language choices in expressing Arab consciousness. Finally, Sarah Maguire will read a short story in Arabic by the UAE writer, Muhammad al-Murr, and Peter Clark will read his own translation.

There will be ample opportunity for members of the audience to ask the speakers questions throughout the evening, and particularly during the break.

Tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available before the evening begins and during the break.

Tickets: £20 for CIOL members / £25 for non-members – please see booking form below.

Kind regards,

The Translating Division Committee
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Venue: Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James's Street, London SW1A 1LR
See www.rosl.org.uk for more information; nearest underground station – Green Park
Time: 19.30 – 22.00
Price: £20 for CIOL members / £25 non-members
Please apply on the tear-off slip below to Julie Hobbs, Chartered Institute of Linguists, Saxon House, 48 Southwark St, London SE1 1UN, Tel: 020 7940 3144.
Applications by: Friday 18 January 2013 Places are limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment Please address any queries to Julie Hobbs at julie.hobbs[at]iol.org.uk
" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------o I would like to attend the Contemporary Arabic Literature in Translation event on 1 February 2013
Please find enclosed my cheque payable to: “Chartered Institute of Linguists”
Price: £20 for CIOL members / £25 non-members
CIOL membership no.: ……………… Registered Student / ACIL / MCIL / FCIL (please delete as applicable)
Title: ……… First name: ………………………. Surname: .……………………………………......... Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………... ………………………………………………………………. Post code: .………………………………. 
Tel: ………………………………...……… E-mail……………………………………………………….

British Centre for Literary Translation mentor scheme, 2013

The British Centre for Literary Translation has announced the list of languages and mentors for 2013, with an amazing lineup of participating translators. All mentorships are for translation into English.
For more information, see the BCLT website:

Considering making a career in literary translation? Already embarked on your course but feel you could do with more help and support? If so, you might be one of the talented emerging translators we’re looking for to participate in the 2013 BCLT Translator Mentoring Scheme  (1 January – 30 June 2013)

Launched in 2011, the scheme has already produced twelve mentorship ‘graduates’ in languages ranging from Catalan to Polish. Several of the 2011-12 mentees have had work published as a result of contacts made and skills honed during the mentoring process, and our Arabic mentee, Emily Danby, was commissioned to translate a novel, The Scent of Cinnamon by Samar Yazbek, during her mentorship.

How to apply

Mentorships will be awarded in fifteen languages

• Arabic (mentor PAUL STARKEY)
• Danish (mentor BARBARA HAVELAND)
• Dutch (mentor DAVID COLMER)
• Italian (mentor HOWARD CURTIS)
• Greek (mentor DAVID CONNOLLY)
• Japanese (mentor MICHAEL EMMERICH)
• Norwegian (mentor DON BARTLETT)
• Polish (mentor ANTONIA LLOYD-JONES)
• Portuguese (mentor MARGARET JULL COSTA)
• Russian (mentor ROBERT CHANDLER)
• Swedish (mentor SARAH DEATH)
• Tamil (mentor LAKSHMI HOLMSTROM)
• Welsh (mentor TONY BIANCHI)

Mentees in these languages will be selected by open application.
To apply for a mentorship please submit the following:

• A brief, up to date CV
• A statement as to why you believe you would benefit from a mentorship and how you would use it
• A short sample of your translation work (not more than 2000 words) with accompanying notes

We expect most applications to come from translators living and working in the UK, but will consider all applications on their merits.

All enquiries and applications should be made by email to Sarah Bower, Scheme Co-ordinator at S.Bower at uea.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is 31^st October 2012

Successful applicants will be informed by 30^th November 2012. Mentorships will commence immediately after the New Year holiday.

Call for Proposals: Yale UP translation project

Seen on Twitter:

Dear colleagues,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new project I am coordinating through Yale University Press and to invite proposals for translations.

Our series “World Thought in Translation,” supported by a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will make important works of political, legal, social and ethical thought available in English translation. Its focus will be on previously untranslated texts from outside European traditions, particularly the Middle East and the broader Islamic world, South Asia, China, East Asia, and Africa, but the series will also be open to important but under-studied works originally written in European languages, particularly from Russia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The series will embrace both pre-modern and modern classics. Our primary criteria are the enduring influence of the texts for political and social debate and their unavailability to a wide English-speaking audience. We thus intend to fill the most urgent gaps faced by faculty seeking to teach courses on the political thought of non-Western societies. Given that the works in question will be unfamiliar to students, the translations will be accompanied by interpretive and analytic essays to give readers a basic introduction to the texts’ backgrounds, the circumstances in which they were written, and their subsequent influence within and outside their cultures.

These books are intended to be useful to faculty and students not only in political science departments but also in such fields as anthropology, history, religious studies, area studies and law. Some of the works are expected to reach a sizeable popular audience beyond the university.

We already have a number of projects in the pipeline, including translations of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi’s (d. 1285) Al-Ihkam fi Tamyiz al-Fatawa ʿan al-Ahkam wa Tasarrufat al-Qadi wa-l-Imam (translator: Mohammed Fadel, Toronto) and Muhammad Rashid Rida’s Al-Khilafah aw al-Imamah al-‘Uzma (translator: Simon Wood). We are also considering proposals to translate Rashid al-Ghannushi’s al-Hurriyat al-’amma fi’l-dawla al-islamiyya, al-Raghib al-Isfahani’s K. al-dhari’a ila makarim al-shari’a and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Mizan al-’amal.

I would like to invite members of this scholarly community to submit proposals for collaboration. We take a wide view of what would make a valuable contribution, and are interested in proposals from all languages of the Muslim world. We are open to all kinds of proposals from any time period, any country, any language and any intellectual persuasion from the broader Islamic world.

Please address all queries to me at andrew.march at yale.edu.

Best wishes,
Andrew

Andrew F. March
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Yale University
http://www.yale.edu/polisci/people/amarch.html

Arabic-English literary translation internship, London

Just saw this and it looks like a great opportunity:

Internship in Publishing Literary Translations (Arabic)

3-month fulltime internship offered by the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW, University of Edinburgh) and funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK).

Internship at Arabia Books, 70 Cadogan Place, London SW1X 9AH, www.arabiabooks.co.uk. Fulltime (Mon-Fri, 9am-5am), October – December 2012 (with slight flexibility on dates)

We are offering a versatile internship with a lot of opportunities to work independently. The Internship will primarily involve Editorial work with a contemporary literary text translated from the Arabic, though the successful applicant will have an overview of the entire publishing process. This is a great opportunity for those looking to begin a career in publishing, as you will gain an insight into the operations of a publishing house, as well as valuable contacts and hands-on experience.

Applicants must have a Masters degree or the equivalent or higher from a UK HEI, or be enrolled in a PhD programme at a UK HEI, and be able to secure a leave from studies for the period of the internship. Eligibility follows AHRC PG studentship guidelines.

The successful applicant will have excellent written and spoken English, good communication and organisational skills, be proficient in MS Office and have a passion for publishing and literature in translation, particularly Arabic literature. Experience in Arabic-to-English literary translation is desirable. 

The internship provides a monthly stipend based on AHRC guidelines. The internship holder will be expected to provide a short final report in writing before receiving the final instalment of the stipend.

Please send a letter of application and CV (including names of two references) to the above address, or as attachments to the first email address below, by 15 August 2012.  Finalists will be interviewed in London.

Contact: Harry Hall, info at hauspublishing.com / Professor Marilyn Booth (Director, CASAW), m.booth at ed.ac.uk

Literary translator residencies, Free Word Centre, London

Crossing Cultures: Translating Tales
Translator in residence programme at the Free Word Centre, London
September 2012 – May 2013

The Free Word Centre in London is offering two four-month residencies for practising literary translators in London, in association with the Translators Association, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

One translator will work from Turkish, as Turkey will be the country focus for the London Book Fair in April 2013. The second translator will be working from another language that is widely spoken in the local community, i.e. the local boroughs of Islington, Hackney, City and Tower Hamlets. These include: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Gujarati, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Urdu and Vietnamese.

The role of translator in residence will be both challenging and rewarding. Therefore, FWC are looking for a professional, practising translator, with an aptitude for working in community settings and a proactive, collaborative approach that will engage a wide range of participants and audiences.
Translators will be responsible for researching ideas and developing innovative projects which will be realised with the support of Free Word, and where appropriate working with Free Word Founder Members and Associates, including The British Centre for Literary Translation, English PEN, the Reading Agency and Arvon.

Part of the programme of events should also include developing a project with the local community; this might include working with local schools, colleges, businesses or community groups.

A fee of £5000 is available for each individual residency, together with a small budget to realise projects.

Applications: Please send a CV and covering letter outlining why you want to be translator in residence at the Free Word Centre. Please include an outline of some initial ideas on how you would fulfil the project objectives and send to Siobhan [at] freewordonline.com by 11 June at 10am.

More information here.

UN examinations for EN translators and editors

The United Nations have announced competitive examinations for English-language translators and editors:

July 11-12, 2012
United Nations, New York, NY, USA

The Secretariat of the United Nations is pleased to announce that competitive examinations for the recruitment of English-language translators/précis-writers and editors will be held respectively on 11 and 12 July 2012.  Details regarding eligibility requirements, deadlines and application procedures can be found at:
https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=LE.

For more information, please contact:

Examinations and Tests Section
Office of Human Resources Management
United Nations
New York, NY
ohrmlce at un.org


[As it happens I can't find any details at the web address given, which still only seems to be showing examinations up to May 2012, so I guess your best bet is to contact the email address provided. I'd welcome comments from anyone who has managed to track down the details on the website, or confirmation once the details actually become available! -Ed.]




http://www.careers.un.org/

Literary translation workshops and summer schools, 2012

Lots of fun stuff on this summer in the way of hands-on translation workshops...

The British Centre for Literary Translation Summer School, now running for over a decade, takes place in Norwich from 22 to 27 July 2012 with a distinguished line-up of writers and translators. This year's language combinations are Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Norwegian and Spanish into English. (Alas, the announced English to Italian workshop seems not to be taking place this year.) Deadline for registration is 8 May.

The BCLT is also a partner in a new Arvon Foundation literary translation workshop which will run at Lumb Bank in Yorkshire from 27 August to 1 September 2012. Places by selection: submit one double-spaced page of translation and the same text in the original to lumbbank at arvonfoundation.org by 29 June 2012.

There are fees for both of these events but some financial support may be available; see here for Arvon Foundation Grants and here for more information about travel grants, etc., for the BCLT Summer School. 

The BCLT is also running a literary translation workshop at the upcoming Translation Conference in Doha, Qatar from 29 April 2012.

In London, the Use your Language, Use your English summer school is taking place once again from 9 to 13 July 2012; see this previous post for more information. Source languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. There is also a workshop on editing.

The Use your Language, Use your English project also includes a free online translation component in seven language combinations (Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish into English, as well as editing). To register and gain access to the materials, email useyourcontact at bbk.ac.uk.



Lastly, for translators of German children's literature there is a really nice-looking workshop in September 2012 organised by the Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Funding is available to cover participation:

Bereits zum dritten Mal laden die Robert Bosch Stiftung und der Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur e.V. (AKJ) ins Hamburger Elsa-Brändström-Haus zu einer Übersetzerwerkstatt ein, die sich speziell der deutschsprachigen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur widmet.

Kinder- und Jugendliteratur öffnet die Tür in die Welt des Lesens und erweitert den Horizont der jungen Leser in kultureller und sprachlicher Hinsicht. In diesem Vermittlungsprozess über Sprachgrenzen hinweg kommt den Übersetzern eine wesentliche Rolle zu.

Daher bieten die Robert Bosch Stiftung und der AKJ 15 professionellen Übersetzern vom 16. bis 21. September 2012 die Möglichkeit, sich mit aktuellen Tendenzen der deutschsprachigen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur sowie spezifischen Übersetzungsproblemen des Genres auseinanderzusetzen.

Die Teilnehmer werden mit dem Übersetzer Tobias Scheffel konkret an Texten arbeiten, sie werden neben den Autoren Isabel Abedi und Andreas Steinhöfel auch Illustratoren, Lektoren und Kritiker kennenlernen und Informationen zu Fördermöglichkeiten und bestehenden Netzwerken für Übersetzer erhalten.

Bis zum 2. Mai 2012 können sich professionell arbeitende Übersetzer deutschsprachiger Kinder- und Jugendliteratur bewerben, die aus dem Deutschen in ihre jeweilige Muttersprache übersetzen. Die Werkstatt ist offen für Bewerber aller Sprachen. Übersetzer aus „kleinen“ Sprachen werden schwerpunktmäßig berücksichtigt. Die Teilnehmer erhalten einen Reisekostenzuschuss sowie Unterkunft im Doppelzimmer und Verpflegung für die Dauer der Werkstatt.

More information at http://www.jugendliteratur.org/veranstaltung-45-kein_kinderspiel.html.

Use Your Language, Use Your English summer school 2012

More information about the Use Your Language, Use Your English translation summer school, courtesy of Ros Schwartz who will be leading the French workshop. Discount for students; bursaries available.

Use your language, Use your English

This innovative translator training project is for native English speakers with one or more other language/s at an advanced level who wish to develop their translation and editing skills. All our courses, online and workshops, are delivered by leading professionals. For information, including FAQs, biographies of the tutors and organisers, and further details on each activity outlined below, see:

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/european/about-us/use-your-language-use-your-english

We will be running four activities in 2012:

- The summer school: following the great success of last year’s Summer School, we are delighted to announce the expanded Summer School 2012. This five-day event will take place at Birkbeck University of London (43 Gordon Square WC1H 0PD) on 9-13 July 2012. It comprises courses in translation into English from Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish – each language subject to a minimum group-size of five students – and an editing skills course for all. There will also be games, a competition, meet-the-publishers, and guest lectures and workshops.

Full fee: £400; student fee: £250. Bursaries available. Online booking will open on the website in February 2012.

Extracts from the feedback on last year’s Summer School:

‘Thank you so much for a brilliant course. It was wonderful to meet so many inspiring people, both staff & students alike. I felt really privileged to be working with “la crème de la crème” of the translation world.’

‘It gave me confidence & showed me that translation as a career is a feasible option. It also illustrated the wide variety of options open to people with language skills.’

‘I enjoyed everything! It was amazing being able to experience two tutors of translation with their differing styles; being able to prioritise the techniques in two different languages, plus attending all the fascinating talks. The “fun” bits were great too, ie the translation slam & game.’

-       The online programme (free of charge): This comprises seven courses in translation into English (from Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish) and one course in editing. To register, email: useyourcontact@bbk.ac.uk

-       Exams: from February 2012, you will be able to take an examination in any of our languages/editing; fee £250. Booking for this too will be online via the website.

-       The database (DATE): From March 2012, if you have passed our exam, you will be able to enter yourself on our Database for Academic Translators & Editors [DATE] which will be searched by anyone looking for an excellent Anglophone translator/editor.

jobs, volunteer opportunities

A few job snippets seen about the place today:  

The UN has announced this year's round of competitive recruitment examinations for this year on its careers Facebook page. At the time of writing, the same announcement does not seem to have reached the UN careers website, the Examinations and Tests Section or the Language Outreach Portal. Nevertheless, probably worth keeping an eye out, aspiring translators, editors and verbatim reporters into French, English, German, Russian, Spanish and Arabic...

Concordia University in Canada are advertising a one-year fixed-contract in-house position for an English to French translator.

Lots of jobs on www.toplanguagejobs.co.uk including a German-speaking account manager with thetranslationpeople in Birmingham; an in-house German to English translation post with Lingserve (Surrey/Hampshire area; six-month contract, possible longer-term position); freelance sports journalists and translators (and possibly interpreters? anyway, must know an awful lot about sport) fluent in Arabic, German or Spanish for a London-based multilingual media project.

Finally, for translators willing to contribute pro bono translations for good causes, the WikiProject Medicine/Translation Task Force looks like just such a good cause. The goal is to improve the quality of 80 key medical articles on Wikipedia, transfer them into simple English and then translate them into as many languages as possible.

EN-AR volunteer translators sought, DESA (United Nations)

Seen on the Translation Studies Portal:

English to Arabic translation of news stories

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
The task to translate news stories and web content highlighting the work of UN DESA within fields such as sustainable development, poverty reduction, population issues, economic analysis, trade data and the monitoring of the MDGs, relates to the goal of UN DESA to make all this information accessible in the six official languages of the UN, thereby enabling the world community to make informed decisions.
UN DESA seeks 2 voluntary translators. Each volunteer would be asked to translate one story per week from English to Arabic. Deadline would be 2-3 days. To assist in the translation efforts and to ensure correct terminology, UN DESA will provide a link to the UN Multilingual Terminology Database. DESA/CIMS will divide the work between the two translators, so that the workload will be approximately one translation per week.
Number of volunteers: 2

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
UN DESA works to promote development for all, assisting countries in agenda-setting and decision-making with the goal of meeting their economic, social and environmental challenges. The Communications and Information Management Service manages the department’s website with the goal of having online information available in all six UN languages. The department now seeks volunteers to assist with translations of information from English to Arabic.

Region or country: Global
Development topic: Development advocacy and strategies
REQUIREMENTS: UN DESA seeks volunteers with high-level language skills in English and Arabic. The volunteer should enjoy writing, be meticulous, accurate and flexible. Experience from working with professional translations is very much welcomed.

Areas of expertise: Humanities
Languages: English, Arabic
Hours per week  1-5
Duration in weeks 24
http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/opportunity/opportunity_form.html?id=17006

For those of our readers in or near Cairo, this just through from the Translation Studies Portal and the Arabic Literature (in English) blog:

In Translation Series. Translations of Palestine: Elias Khoury’s Bab al-Shams. A Conversation across Texts. Humphrey Davies (Translator); Elias Khoury (Author); Yousry Nasrallah (Filmmaker)

Monday, 26 September 2011, 6 pm, Oriental Hall, American University in Cairo, Tahrir Square, Cairo.

translators sought for Front Line.

This may be of interest to current students or graduates:

Front Line, The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is seeking professional translators to assist with the translation of our website, e-bulletin, training documents and other general correspondance.

Selected candidates should be a native speaker of the target language and fluent in the source language, they should have a professional qualification and/or experience in translation, a proven commitment to human rights and an understanding of the work of Front Line.

Language pairs needed:
English to Arabic Arabic to English
French to English English to French
Spanish to English English to Spanish
English to Russian Russian to English
English to Farsi

Applications including a cv with specific details of previous translation experience and qualifications, references and a cover letter, should be sent to Tara Madden, Program Manager, at tara at frontlinedefenders.org

Front Line pays on a per word basis, please include rate of pay in your cover letter. Please put the relevant language pair in the subject bar of your email.

Places at translation summer school still available for Russian and Spanish

Hi all, 

A message just came round from the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies to say that there are places left for translators from Russian and Arabic at the Use your Language, Use your English Summer School which will take place from July 18 to 23 July. Contact the IGRS regarding late applications. Please see http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/postgraduate/use-your-language-use-your-english.html for further details.

Deadline approaches for Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize (29 July)

Just a quick reminder that the deadline is approaching for the Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize. This year the language pair is Arabic-English. The deadline is 29 July (postal entries only). It will be interesting to see whether this year's competition betters the 230 entries received last year!

Speaking of literature in translation, anyone considering their summer holiday reading could do worse than check out this guide to good translated fiction featuring nominees for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and other good reads (large file, takes a while to download). Or you could have a dekko at the shortlist for the CWA International Dagger. Or you could peruse the shortlist for this year's Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Or you could check out Andotherstories. Or if sf is more your speed you could contemplate the shortlist of the first ever Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards. (On a related note, allow me to put in a shameless puff for A Polish Book of Monsters: Five Dark Tales from Contemporary Poland, translations by Michael Kandel. The first story by Marek S. Huberath is very good stuff indeed - see this excerpt at Words Without Borders). 

Image courtesy of quinn.anya on flickr, with thanks

translation placements and jobs

Just arrived on our desk: the German LSP transcultura is looking for a project manager/translator working out of German into English, Spanish or Italian.

And a few more placement opportunities:

MO Group International is advertising internship opportunities to translation students looking for work experience in translation, proofreading and localisation. German, French or Dutch native speakers preferred. The expiry date for this round is 12 June.

Thinking about a future specialism in financial translation? The European Central Bank sometimes advertises translation internships. Deutsche Bank also has a placement scheme for English or German speakers working out of German and English, respectively. Contact Eva Hillesheim at +49 (069) 910-38839.


An internship (minimum length 5 months) with some living expenses paid is being advertised in Beijing for a new or imminent graduate translating from English into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Traditional Chinese. 

Readers in Ireland might like to keep an eye on the European Movement internship site, which sometimes advertises translation internships in Brussels and elsewhere.

More experienced translators might like to keep an eye on the job listing on the AIIC website and the UNjobs site. The World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva is advertising for a translator from English and French into Arabic (deadline 15 June).

Literary translation events, prizes, workshops, residencies and other goodies

 

There are still places available for the Chinese and Arabic workshops at this summer's British Centre for Literary Translation Summer School. The BCLT's website has details of prizes, residencies and funding opportunities for literary translators, including a new prize: the Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender Prize for the translation of Russian poetry into English (deadline 31 August 2011) which is open to translators anywhere in the world. Applications are also being accepted for the Vermont Studio Center/Zoland Poetry 2011 Translation Fellowship. This fellowship, open to all translators of international writing into English, provides an all-inclusive four-week residency at the Vermont Studio Center, the international creative retreat center for artists and writers in northern Vermon. The application deadline is 15 June 2011. (Sounds, as my brother would say, awesome).

Don't forget about the third annual World Literature Weekend from 17 to 19 June 2011 in London, a celebration of  literature in translation with an amazing line-up. Those of you who were, like me, riveted to the adventures of the Girl Who Fixed The Umlaut (I've now moved on to Jo Nesbø - also gripping stuff) might enjoy the Scandinavian crime fiction event Reading Scars with Karin Alvtegen, Håkan Nesser and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen. As well as the Live Translation event, there are six limited-entry translation masterclasses from French and Italian (alas sold out), Russian, German, Arabic and Spanish. Download a PDF of the program (3.1MB).


For readers with literary translations languishing unpublished on their hard drive, there are two journals currently looking for submissions. The Black Herald is looking for submissions of original or translated poetry in English or French. The peer-reviewed academic journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice is interested in receiving translations into English of short stories from any language. For queries or to submit a story for consideration (up to 8,000 words), contact Ailsa Cox at Cox at edgehill.ac.uk. They are also interested in articles on translating short stories or interviews with writers from other languages. This September's deadline is for an issue on the figure of the author; any translations of stories which include an author character would be especially welcome.

For more on literary translation events and resources click on the literary translation tags to this post or in the tag cloud.