Sunday Submissions: PEN/Heim Translation Grants

The PEN/Heim fund, established in 2003 with a gift from Priscilla and Michael Henry Heim, is looking once again for translations to support:

The fund, set up “in response to the dismayingly low number of literary translations currently appearing in English,” has supported a total of 139 translations in 35 languages with grants of $2,000–$4,000. These projects include Elizabeth Winslow’s translation of The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail; Chip Rossetti for his translation of Animals in Our Days by Mohamad Makhzangi, which has not yet been published; and Elisabeth Jaquette for her translation of Thirteen Months of Sunrises by Rania Mamoun, which is forthcoming in December 2018 from Comma Press.

The details:

• 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creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama that have not previously appeared in English in print or have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation.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.
• 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.

This year’s deadline is July 20, 2018.

Find out more at the PEN website.