Sylvia Plath, Puberty, & A Slowly Setting Midnight Sun
Everyone knows translation is a losing business. Financial success is anomalous in a market where breaking even is a boon and selling 3,000 copies can be cause for celebration. “It costs around $25,000 to publish a book. For a work in translation that figure is closer to $35,000,” says Chad Post, the de facto spokesperson for the state of translated fiction in the U.S. and acquiring editor at Dalkey Archive Press, in a recent interview with the German Book Office. Yet intrepid editors and publishers manage to circumvent financial strictures at conglomerate publishers and stretch limited funds at independents and nonprofits to bring global literature state-side.
In order to do it, some presses turn to funding organizations in the U.S. such as the NEA for help, but on the subsidy priority list, literary translation often comes after flashier projects in the visual arts or music. Along with its myriad programs and tireless efforts to bring world literature to the U.S., the PEN American Center offers up to $3,000 to individual translators for works which will hopefully, though not necessarily, find their way to a publisher.
Across the sea, however, a network of institutions devoted to funding the translation of its country’s literature is growing. With the opening of eastern Europe and the expansion of the EU, from Estonia to Hungary, almost every European country offers translation grants, most often through a government’s cultural affairs department. Many Asian countries have established or are in the process of establishing programs as well. Scope and restrictions vary among nations, but the average grant is between 40-70% of the total translation fee, with some programs offering a larger percentage if the work to be translated appears on a list of suggested titles.
At Archipelago Books, a nonprofit press devoted entirely to the publication of translated works, foreign grants keep the bottom line stable and the backlist expanding. “I knew these kinds of funds existed before we began, but I was surprised to find it was more than I expected,” said founder Jill Schoolman. CLMP’s Jeffrey Lependorf and Ande Zellman of the Literary Ventures Fund, a philanthropic organization which worked with Archipelago on the publication of its most successful title Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury believe that foreign grants are underused by Americans simply because they’re “off the radar” for most publishers. Though savvier than most in the book business about foreign subsidies, having won a grant from the Portuguese Institute for Book and Libraries (www.iplb.pt), Amy Hundley, Editor at Grove/Atlantic, said “We did not get a subvention for The Sexual Life of Catherine M, … largely because we were unaware they existed in France. Not for lack of trying to find out, mind you.” (Since then, the French Ministry of Culture has substantially stepped up marketing for its translation grant program, www.french booknews.com.)
For international publishers, subventions are common knowledge. “My experience suggests that the bodies that grant these subsidies have always been in close touch with European publishers, but not to the same extent with American ones, and vice-versa,” said Hundley. The list of books supported by the Book Institute of Poland (www.bookinstitute.pl) in the past several years confirms this lack of awareness. Out of more than 500 titles, only ten went to the U.S. (three of them to Archipelago). France and Germany won 27 and 43 grants respectively. Even Macedonia was funded twice.
Considering applicants aren’t generally turned away by funding institutions, just handed less than the requested amount, it doesn’t seem Americans are being rejected more than other countries. They’re just not applying.
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday and its language partners (Weidenfeld & Nicolson/UK and Doubleday/Canada), however, applied for and won a grant from the Danish Arts Council Committee for Literature, via the administrative arm of the Danish Literature Center (www.danish-arts.dk), for The Exception by Christian Jungersen, a psychological thriller that has been on the Danish bestseller list for over a year and a half. Lorna Owen, the title’s US editor, said the Center’s associates were “tremendously helpful, responsive, and all-around lovely to work with.” Though grants there usually fall between $3500 and $8500, not quite enough to cover an entire translation fee, authors can tap into the DACC’s travel pool to make appearances abroad at launches and book tours.
Likewise, Norwegian Literature Abroad (www.norla.no) sponsors author trips to promote funded titles in addition to traditional translation grants. Founded in 1978, NORLA is one of the oldest programs in Europe and has subsidized over 1000 titles. Harvill Secker/Random House in the UK received grants for the publication of novels by Norwegian crime-writing sensations Karin Fossum and Jo Nesbø. In the U.S., Fossum’s When the Devil Holds the Candle was released in July by Harcourt and Vintage came out with Nesbø’s The Devil’s Star in mass market in August. NORLA also subsidizes sample translations to be submitted to foreign publishers, an overlooked, but fundamental element for getting a country’s literature across its borders.
Other stand-out programs in Europe include the Foundation for Production and Translation of Dutch Literature in the Netherlands (www.nlpvf.nl/) and the Swedish Institute in Sweden (www.si.se). Over 4,000 German titles have been translated and published in 45 languages with the help of funds from the 30-year-old Goethe-Institut (www.goethe.de), perhaps the most established foreign subvention scheme in the world.
In Asia, programs such as Japanese Literature Publishing Project (JLPP) and the Korean Literary Translation Institute (KLTI) realize more is needed to promote their literary culture than just subsidizing translations. The JLPP (www.jlpp.jp) commissions and edits full translations that it offers to prospective publishers. After publication, it purchases 2000 copies of the translated title which it distributes to public libraries and educational institutions around the world. It also contributes toward publication costs. KLTI (www.ltikorea.net) provides up to 16 million won (approx. $16,600) depending on the length and difficulty of a classical or contemporary literary title, and a grant of up to $3000 for marketing in the target country.
When all goes smoothly, a subsidy can give the push that gets a title off the ground, though grants are not without their limitations. Typically, a subsidy is paid only after copies of the published book are delivered to the funding organization, but presses without a surplus of capital can’t begin the translation without the subvention. The specific terms and restrictions associated with most subventions can make the application process tedious at best and, though it seems to happen rarely, not following them to the letter can render an award invalid. Robert Weil, Executive Editor at Norton, won a generous Goethe-Institut grant to publish A Sad Affair by Wolfgang G. Koeppen in 2003. After publication, the Goethe-Institut denied funding since it received no acknowledgment on the copyright page, one of the grant requirements. However, Riky Stock at the GBO used her cultural acumen to mediate and the grant was delivered as promised.
Foreign subventions on their own probably won’t create the translation boom so many internationally minded Americans hope for, but they do play a role in expanding the cultural horizon in America. After all, without one from the Americas Society for a popular South American novel by a Colombian journalist in the 1960’s, One Hundred Years of Solitude would have taken much longer to reach an English-speaking audience.
