Between 2 and 4 October 2024, CEATL, the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations, organised the first European Conference on Literary Translation, as part of the programme for Strasbourg’s UNESCO World Book Capital 2024.
This unprecedented event, which was held in various locations around the city and at the European Parliament, has brought together 350 parties involved in literary translation all over Europe for 3 days of debates and activities (in-town exhibition, screenings and other events), with a view to putting literary translation in the spotlight and accelerate the circulation of translated works in Europe and beyond.
The programme, featuring 80 high-profile speakers from 30 countries, saw a splendid inauguration night in Bulgarian around Booker-Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov and his translators, including 5 roundtables, 7 workshops and more. It was a fantastic opportunity to discuss key challenges for the present and future of the sector: training, support systems and translation markets, the visibility of translators and translation, artificial intelligence, linguistic diversity, sensitivity reading and freedom of expression.
The event was strongly supported by the European Parliament and the European Commission, as well as by more than twenty public and private organisations in a dozen European countries; it will be a landmark in the awareness of the existence of a community united by the desire to promote translation and a wider dissemination of literary works (under good conditions, in particular for translators).
The Conference was also designed and organised in partnership with a dozen networks and federations representing the whole ecosystem of literary translation: Petra-e network for training establishments; the International Federation of Translators (FIT); PEN International; the European Writers’ Council (EWC); the European Federation of Publishers (FEP); the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF); RECIT network (residencies); ENLIT and Traduki networks (support organisations); and book fairs (Bologna and Frankfurt book fairs).
All of these organisations have found in the Conference an opportunity to showcase their vital work and to share their knowledge, concerns and best practices when it comes to translated literature. Indeed, In the words of the Frankowski Report on the future of the European book sector (2023), “the entire book sector value chain relies on the balance between its various actors, such as authors, publishers, distributors, printers, translators, booksellers, libraries and ultimately readers”; The Conference was a positive step forward towards a publishing ecosystem which is fair and balanced, rich and diverse, human-centric and of high quality.
The Conference was streamed live from the European Parliament with 1,500 viewers registered all over the world. The videos are now available in English, French and German on CEATL’s website, along with other information on the Conference: https://www.ceatl.eu/achievements/strasbourg-conference.
A full report will be published early 2025.
Contact: strasbourgconference@ceatl.eu