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.

Rosetta Foundation seeks volunteer translators

Tweeted by the Rosetta Foundation: Urgently seeking volunteer translators and proofreaders from ENGLISH into SERBIAN, TURKISH, PORTUGUESE, and DUTCH. Email info at therosettafoundation.org.

More information about the work of the Rosetta Foundation here.

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.

Workshop on children's literature in translation, London (participants wanted)

The European Commission Representation in the UK, the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature of Roehampton University and the Translation Group of Imperial College London cordially invite you to:

'TRANSLATING THE WONDERFUL'
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
6 DECEMBER 2011
3:00pm-8:00pm
Europe House
32 Smith Square
London SW1P 3EU

On Tuesday 6 December Europe House will host an event on translating children’s literature into English. It will take the format of workshop sessions, where students working from various languages into English will translate samples from classic children’s literature or literature closely related to the classics in style and theme, followed by a panel discussion and evening reception.

No single universe is as diverse and intriguing as the world of children's literature and yet so many visions pass us by because so little is translated into English. The idea then is to carry out translations of extracts from selected texts and to discuss the various possible approaches to the translation of children’s literature and in particular the differences and similarities in translation strategies across languages.

Each workshop will be coordinated by a leading translator of the respective language pair, with the findings of each workshop presented to the other participants in a concluding panel discussion.

The languages covered in the workshops will be Danish, Dutch, French and German.

-      The Danish workshop (Hans Christian Andersen) will be led by Dr. Kirsten Malmkjaer and is sponsored by the Danish Embassy.

-      The Dutch workshop (Annie MG Schmidt) will be led by David Colmer and is sponsored by the Dutch Embassy in London and the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

-      The French workshop (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) will be led by Ros Schwartz and Sarah Ardizonne, and is sponsored by the French Institute in London.

-      The German workshop (E.T.A. Hoffmann) will be led by Anthea Bell and is sponsored by the Goethe Institute in London.

-      Flanders House will also support and attend the event.

The workshops will be preceded by an opening introduction by Dr. Gillian Lathey (the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature) and concluded by an open cross-panel discussion, which will aim to draw conclusions regarding strategies for translating children’s literature from across Europe into English. This will be followed by a reception offered by the European Commission Representation in the UK.

Programme

3.00pm         Registration

3.30pm         Introduction by Dr. Gillian Lathey

3.45pm         Workshops

4.45pm         Group discussion

5.30pm         Tea and coffee

6.00pm         Panel discussion and conclusions

7.00pm         Reception

With regard to student participation, ideally for each language workshop we are looking for 6-12 English native speakers studying translation and with some experience of or interest in literary translation (either final year undergraduates or MA students). Participants in the afternoon workshops will also attend the panel discussion and reception, where they will have the opportunity to meet established translators.

Entrance to this event is free but places are limited. To reserve a place please e-mail Tom Barbanneau at: t.barbanneau@imperial.ac.uk (specify for which part you register: workshop+panel&reception OR panel&reception).

Location:

European Commission Representation UK
Europe House
32 Smith Square
London SW1P 3EU

(nearest Tube station: Westminster, 5-minute walk)

doctoral and postdoctoral TS research positions, Leuven, Belgium

A great opportunity for TS researchers and aspiring researchers on a really interesting-looking project:

The K.U. Leuven research project '"Customs officers or smugglers?" studying the mediating activities of Belgian intercultural actors (translators, multilingual writers, self-translators, bilingual literature and art critics) and their networks' is offering two research Fellowships starting in October 2011:

1 Doctoral Researcher (48 months)
Must read French and Dutch. Good written English needed.

1 Postdoctoral Researcher (18 months)
Must read French; Dutch a bonus. Good written English needed.

Promoter: R. Meylaerts
Co-promoters: L. D'hulst and T. Verschaffel

Deadline for applications: 7 September 2011. For further information please contact reine.meylaerts at arts.kuleuven.be

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.

EU competitions for translators and interpreters

I hear the EU competition for translators will be open for registration at the EPSO website at www.eu-careers.eu from 13 July to 12 August. According to the site, there will be competitions for translators into Danish, German, English, French and Slovenian, and for interpreters into Bulgarian, English, Dutch, Romanian and Slovenian.

While you are waiting for registration to open there are a couple of resources you might find helpful. Charles, a translator at the DGT, has a Facebook page where he answers questions from potential applicants for translation posts with the EU institutions - see the Discussions board. And sample texts in all languages for the translation competitions can be found here.

Good luck to any readers of this blog who apply! :)

job sites, placements and stuff

A few more placement and jobs ideas for those of you graduating this summer (see the jobs, careers in translation and work placement tags for older entries).

Try the keywords 'translation' and 'translator' on www.totaljobs.com or www.eurolondon.com/foreign-language-jobs.htm. The agency Synonyme are advertising for more experienced translators with an existing specialism to join their team. They ask for a translation test as well as an application form - the texts are under the 'Translator Zone' tag. Worth looking at! Other interesting resources there too.

The company SDL in Sheffield offers six-month placements to students whose *first language* is French, German, Italian, Dutch, European Spanish, Latin American Spanish or European Portuguese. They also have a jobsearch site with more internships advertised: go to their homepage and click on 'careers'.

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.

call for freelance translators

Hello all!
Where did the sun go?!? Oh well. Have just received this email via a colleague which may be of interest to some of you.

Good morning,
I am writing to let you know that we are currently recruiting freelance translators at Orb Translations. We are very keen to work with translators at an early stage in their career as we understand how difficult it can be to start out as a freelancer therefore I would be grateful if you could pass this message on to your MA Translation students who may be interested in applying.

We are currently looking to recruit for all language combinations but are particularly interested in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Greek, Korean, Portuguese and Urdu. I have attached an application form which can be returned directly to me at this email address or there is also an online application form on the website (http://www.orbtranslations.com/form.htm). Obviously as your students will just be starting out, they do not need to worry too much about giving 2 referees.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
Louise Clegg

Orb Translations
29 Otley Old Road, Leeds, LS16 6HB, UK
T: +44(0)1138154149
M: +44(0)7929207675
F: +44(0)1132987966
www.orbtranslations.com