Sunday Submissions: PEN Translates Open for Submissions

PEN Translates launched in 2012 with the aim of encouraging UK publishers to acquire more books from other languages:

PEN Translates is open to works from all languages, and “it is not essential for publishers to have acquired the rights at the time of application.” Submitted projects can be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theatre texts, for adults or children. The grant is open to UK-based publishers only.

PEN Translates will fund up to 75% of translation costs for selected projects from larger publishers, and — publishers with an annual turnover of less than £500,000 — they will “consider supporting up to 100% of translation costs.”

The main criteria for assessment, according to organizers, are: “literary quality, strength and innovation of the publishing project, and contribution to literary diversity in the UK.”

PEN Translates will support a project that’s in progress, but not one already in the final stages of production. That is: “For translations underway, the publication date must be at least three months after the announcement of the award. Awards are announced approximately four to five months after the application deadline.”

The current application period is set to close on May 31, 2019.

More on the application process on the English PEN website.