Brazil to establish a generous translation fund

[Stiffelio]

First of all, I'm sorry this article is in Spanish, but I thought it was great news to divulge. Basically, president Dilma Rouseff, an avowed bookworm, is committed to doing the right homework in anticipation to Brazil's being guest of honor at the Bogotá, Frankfurt and Bologna bookfairs in upcoming years. Total endowment, funded by the Ministry of Culture and the National Library, will reach approximately 5 million Euros (approx 5,700 Euros per book) and will be granted to foreign publishing houses who would undertake the translation of Brazilian literature. Initial emphasis will be placed on Spanish, German and Italian languages. In addition they plan to create residence scholarships both for Brazilian translators to work abroad and for Spanish translators to work in Brazil.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/revis...lpepirdv_6/Tes


Good job, Dilma !

[Eric]

Thank-you, Stiffelio. This is a good thing. It would almost encourage me to learn Portuguese, were it not for the fact that I have quite enough to translate already.

But it's good news for publishing houses such as Dalkey and Open Letter Books in the States (as the USA is part of the same continent) who will be able to publish sophisticated literature from Brazil and get it subsidised. I'm sure a few glossy albums will be published too, but if serious money is paid to translators to promote Brazilian literature too, so much the better.

[Stiffelio]

Here's another related article, this time in English.

http://www.brazzilmag.com/component/...n-authors.html

[Eric]

Thank-you again, Stiffelio. Brazil appears to be coming of age with regard to translation grants. I note, to my surprise, that England was quite high up in the grants stake last year, judging by that article in English. As Brazil occupies almost half of the South American land mass, it is nice to think that although they haven't joined the Latin American mainstream, which of course has Spanish as its lingua franca, they are striving to count, culturally. In 2013 the Frankfurt Book Fair will have Brazil as its Guest of Honour. So while Portugal is suffering from a poor national economy, Brazil, maybe initially thanks to Lula and now to the Great Reader, will no doubt come into its own.