Dalkey Archive Press awarded European grant for translations
Dalkey Archive Press recently received a grant of 90,544 euros, or about $106,900, to publish translations from nine Eastern European countries during the next two years.
This is the second year that the Creative Europe Culture Sub-Program Support to Literary Translation Projects has awarded a grant to Dalkey Archive. The press is internationally recognized for its commitment to literary translations and has publishing operations at the University of Houston-Victoria and also a European office in Dublin. Out of 220 eligible applications, Dalkey’s application was one of only 33 that were successful.
“We have a long-standing effort to publish authors from Eastern Europe, and this award allows us to continue to expand upon this effort,” said Jake Snyder, Dalkey Archive Press associate director.
Dalkey Archive Press has been singled out for both the quantity and quality of its publications, Snyder said. Dalkey publishes more than 60 books each year, in addition to a journal and a magazine. Among its award-winning authors are three Nobel Prize winners.
“We are hoping to establish a permanent fund to sustain our commitment to Eastern European literature into the distant future and to significantly increase the number of works each year,” Dalkey Publisher John O’Brien said. “There are so many important writers from around the world who are not getting into English. Fortunately, UHV has made an enormous commitment to translations through helping to support Dalkey Archive and through establishing its Certificate in Applied Literary Translation, a program that is unique in how it develops emerging translators, leading to their first book-length translation.”
Dalkey will use the funds to publish 10 translations from the following Eastern European countries: Bosnia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Moldova and Macedonia. The award will allow the publisher to make available works from these European countries to anyone who can read English, Snyder said. Dalkey must match this grant.
In addition to the costs of the translations, including payments to authors and translators, the grant will help promote the cross-border circulation of literary works in Europe and beyond and reach readers through traditional and digital channels. As part of these marketing efforts, authors will tour European countries.
“Dalkey Archive Press is an internationally known publisher with unparalleled commitment to bringing the literature of the world to readers of English,” said Jeffrey Di Leo, dean of the UHV School of Arts & Sciences. “This grant is an exciting contribution toward Dalkey’s important and unique mission, and I look forward to seeing how the grant will help it bring attention to writers previously unknown in the English-speaking world.”
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
