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.

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.

jobs, languages and grammar

Courtesy of Raisa McNab of STP Nordic who gave a great workshop for us today on project management and quality assurance (thank you Raisa!), I have just come across the jobs site Adaptive Globalization, which seems an excellent source of prospects for those of our readers on the lookout for jobs. As always, German and Scandinavian languages are in high demand. Or indeed, as one recently seen advertisement put it, Nordic languages are 'especially sort after'.

Google gives 13,000+ hits for 'especially sort after', so I presume that it's only a matter of time before 'sought' joins 'boughten' and 'wroken' in the great retirement home for obsolete past participles. Meanwhile, I take consolation in the fact that, on the BBC at least, the past participle is alive and well:

Coincidentally, I also recently saw that the University of Leicester are offering three part-scholarships for the academic year 2012-2013 for their MA Translation Studies course, which includes Danish, Norwegian and Swedish as course languages.

in-house translation jobs

For readers finishing off their dissertations and looking at the job market, a quick round-up of in-house translation posts and links. 

Seen on the ITI website: 

German to English fulltime experienced translator for a busy long-established language services company. English mother tongue, additional language and knowledge of finance/banking an advantage. Varied and interesting work in a friendly environment, with some travel abroad. Two minutes from underground in NW London. Applications with CV to info at arblimited.com.

http://honyakuhome.org, the blog for translators working with Japanese, has a jobs listing, e.g.  for translators  from Japanese into English, Italian and French, based in Frankfurt.

Mostra is advertising a very interesting-looking position for a German native speaker subtitling, translating and proofreading TV programmes and on line texts for EuroparlTV (the web television of the European Parliament).

thebigword are looking for a junior German to English in-house translator in West Yorkshire.

Xerox are looking for an English to French in-house translator, based in Welwyn Garden City. They are also looking for a Swedish translator, based in Slough.

SDL are advertising a number of translation positions at the moment including a German-English internship in Sheffield and a number of posts in Russia. See here for a full list of advertisements. 

There's a full-time in-house job going in Hampshire for a Norwegian native speaker. Come to think of it, apart from German, I think the Nordic languages are probably the ones I see most unfulfilled demand for. 

Some more ideas and possiblities at careerjet. Good luck to all jobseeking translation graduates!

jobs in games localisation

For any enthusiastic gamers reading this blog, Testronic Laboratories in the UK are advertising for localisation game testers with a wide range of languages (must be native speakers): German, French, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Brazilian Mexican (a new one on me - possibly Brazilian Portuguese and Mexican Spanish? or has gaming in the Americas developed interesting new transnational articulations??), Czech, Polish and Japanese. They are also looking for a Japanese translation lead technician.

freelance and other job links

Thought some of the following may be of interest. The Metropolitan Police are advertising for freelance translators with English and one or more of: Bengali, Cantonese, Danish, Estonian, Georgian, Gujarati, Korean, Norwegian, Punjabi, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish, Tamil and Thai. For translators who already have some experience; do read the requirements carefully. There's a useful-looking job page at the Polyglot Blog which might be worth keeping an eye on. For jobs in North America see this page. See the jobs tag on this blog for further ideas.

translators needed by broadcaster: deadline 8 Jan 10

Dear all,

This just came round on the BCLT mailing list and may be of interest to some of you. Note that the deadline is tomorrow!
Carol

Translators needed for project with UK broadcaster

A UK broadcaster is looking for three translators to work from 24 to 28 Feb 2010 on a fun (and paid) project translating written material posted online into English.
They need three translators each with very particular skill-sets: able to translate both French and Italian into English; able to translate both German and Dutch into English; able to translate both Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian into English. There will be some online idiom to translate. Peter Law - who is co-ordinating the project - would be happy to hear from young translators or recent graduates with the right skills, as well as more experienced translators. The work is based in London, from 24 - 28 Feb, full-time, with a half day start-up meeting at some point beforehand. If you have one of the skills sets taking part please send a CV and covering email detailing your language skill, grasp of web idiom (and/or willingness to learn), relevant experience and your day rate, to Peter Law at peter.law@somethinelse.com by 8 Jan 2010.

Susan Sontag prize for translation

Dear friends,
This looks like an exciting opportunity for any of you working in appropriate language combinations:

THE 2010 SUSAN SONTAG PRIZE FOR TRANSLATION
$5,000 grant for a literary translation from Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
or Icelandic into English

This $5,000 grant will be awarded to a proposed work of literary
translation from Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Icelandic into English
and is open to anyone under the age of 30. The translation must fall
under the category of fiction or letters, and the applicant will propose
his or her own translation project. The project should be manageable for
a five-month period of work, as the grant will be awarded in May 2010,
and the translation must be completed by October 2010. Acceptable
proposals include a novella, a play, a collection of short stories or
poems, or a collection of letters that have literary import. Preference
will be given to works that have not been previously translated.
(Previously translated works will be considered, however applicants
should include an explanation for why they are proposing a new
translation.) Applicants wishing to translate significantly longer works
should contact the Foundation before sending in their applications so
that supplementary materials can be included. The prizewinner will be
notified on May 14, 2010 and results will be announced online at
www.susansontag.org. The recipient will be expected to participate in
symposia on literary translation with established writers and
translators, as well as public readings of their work once the
translation has been completed.

Application Requirements (Please download the official application
online at www.susansontag.org.) All applications must include three
copies of the following:
• Application Cover Sheet (available online at www.susansontag.org)
• Personal Statement (2 pages maximum) explaining your interest and
background in literature and the source language (Swedish, Norwegian,
Danish or Icelandic)
• Project proposal (2 pages maximum) outlining the work and describing
its importance
• 5 page sample translation of the proposed work from the source
language into English
• The same passage in the original language
• A bio-bibliography of the author (including information on previous
translations of his or her work into English)
• One academic letter of recommendation
• Official transcript from your current or most recent academic institution

All applications must be submitted via regular mail to the Foundation’s
P.O. Box address, which will be posted online at www.susansontag.org on
December 15, 2009. All application materials must be received by
February 13, 2010. The fine print: Applicants must be under the age of
30 on the date the prizewinner will be announced: May 14, 2010. By
submitting work to the Susan Sontag Foundation, the applicant
acknowledges the right of the Foundation to use the accepted work in its
publications, on its website, and for educational and promotional
purposes related to the Foundation. Please note that application
materials cannot be returned to applicants.

For more information, please go to www.susansontag.org or info@susansontag.org