Sunday Submissions: 2017 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants

Submissions for PEN/Heim’s 2017 cycle opened on June 1 and close on August 15:

According to the submissions page, since the fund’s 2004 launch, it’s provided grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 to a total of 139 translation projects from “over 35” languages, Arabic among them.

In 2015, there were four Arabic applications among the year’s record-breaking 226, but no Arabic-English projects received grants. All applicants for the 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund, meanwhile, will apparently receive an update regarding the status of their application before July 1, 2016.

A ten to twelve page sample is required for the submission. Also:

• “The PEN/Heim Translation Fund provides grants to support the translation of book-length works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama that have not previously appeared in English in print or have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation.
• “Works should be translations-in-progress, as the grant aims to provide support for completion.
• “There are no restrictions on the nationality or citizenship of the translator, but the works must be translated into English.
• “The Fund seeks to encourage translators to undertake projects they might not otherwise have had the means to attempt.
• “Anthologies with multiple translators, works of literary criticism, and scholarly or technical texts do not qualify.
• “As of 2008, translators who have previously been awarded grants by the Fund are ineligible to reapply for three years after the year in which they receive a grant.
• “Please note that projects that have been previously submitted and have not received a grant are unlikely to be reconsidered in a subsequent year.
• “Projects may have up to two translators.
• “Translators may only submit one project per year.”

Start the submissions process here.