Advanced Translation Workshop - Publishing Literature from Taiwan 

Thursday 7th, Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November 2024, Online

The Advanced Translation Workshop in 2024 will be for translators of Taiwanese Literature and will run across 3 days - Thursday 7th November 2024 (10am-5pm GMT), Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November 2024 (10am-5pm GMT). This workshop is generously supported by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature.  The workshop will be focusing on writing sample translations and pitches. The goal of the workshop is to finish the 3-days with a sample translation and pitch that is polished and ready to send to a publisher. 

Please note, if you are offered a place on the workshop you will be required to do some work in advance. You will need to choose a book from the Taiwan Literature Awards for Books longlists and gain permission from the rights holder to translate and pitch the book. Once you have permission, you will then do a sample translation (length TBC) and pitch. Your work will be shared with the workshop leader, editor/s and fellow workshop attendees and you will spend the 3 days improving upon it.  Eligibility criteria can be found in the 'How to apply' section below.

Since 2021, BCLT has been running 3-day online advanced translation workshops for more experienced literary translators. These workshops bring together translators from around the world working with the same language combinations. We ran a pilot of this event in 2021 with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull, with a focus on Catalan-English translators. We then ran advanced translation workshops in 2022 and 2023 for German-English literary translators, in collaboration with Goethe Institut and New Books in German, and Scandinavian literary translators, in collaboration with Danish Arts Foundation, NORLA and the Swedish Arts Council.

Previous participants on the advanced translation workshops have applied for the following reasons:

“I wanted to gain more experience and confidence in my own translation practice.”

“I applied because, due to various circumstances, I have struggled to make the step from one published book to regular translation work. I relished the chance of collaborative work and the opportunity to hone my skills.”

“Because I was losing confidence after a few ignored pitches.”

“To refine existing translation skills, establish new professional connections and contribute to others through constructive feedback.”

The Advanced Translation Workshop for translators of Taiwanese literature will be focusing on writing sample translations and pitches. The goal of the workshop is to finish the 3-days with a sample translation and pitch that is polished and ready to send to a publisher. 

If you are offered a place on the workshop you will be required to do some work in advance. You will need to choose a book from the Taiwan Literature Awards for Books longlists and gain permission from the rights holder to translate and pitch the book. Once you have permission, you will then do a sample translation (length TBC) and pitch. Your work will be shared with the workshop leader, editor/s and fellow workshop attendees and you will spend the 3 days improving upon it. 

The BCLT advanced translation workshops are a rare professional development opportunity for published literary translators and are designed to bring peers together to discuss their work and the industry. 

 

Cost of attending

All translators selected for this workshop will receive a full tuition fee bursary, supported by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. This means that the workshop will be free to attend. All translators will be asked to submit a full one-page report after the workshop for evaluation purposes.

 

Plenary sessions

The programme will also include plenary sessions focused on the industry and Taiwan literature. You can watch previous plenary sessions on our YouTube channel:

 

Hold Your Nose and…Translate?

How to translate books you don’t adore, and how to talk about it afterwards
 

 

Meet the World: Translating Genre

National Centre for Writing

 

Publishers Panel

Chaired by Aki Schilz (Chair) with speakers Jade Chandler (Baskerville at John Murray Press), Kirsty Dunseath (Doubleday at Transworld) and Rory Williamson (Pushkin Press).
 

 

You can watch the plenary sessions from previous Advanced Translation workshops on the BCLT YouTube channel

 

Workshop Leader - Jeremy Tiang

Jeremy Tiang is a novelist, playwright and translator from Chinese. He has translated work by Taiwanese novelists such as Lo Yi-Chin and Su Wei-Chen, as well as Taiwanese playwrights Wei Yu-Chia and Shen Wan-Ting. Other translations include novels by Yeng Pway Ngon, Zhang Yueran, Shuang Xuetao and Chan Ho-Kei. He has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize for Zou Jingzhi's Ninth Building, and shortlisted for the National Translation Award for Liu Xinwu's The Wedding Party. His novel State of Emergency won the Singapore Literature Prize, and is forthcoming in the US and UK from World Editions. His play Salesman之死 received a sold-out production in New York last year. Originally from Singapore, he is currently based in New York City.

To be eligible to apply for this workshop you must:

  • Have published at least one piece of literary translation from Chinese to English in any genre, including prose, poetry or drama (either a full-length book or a shorter piece in a journal, whether print or online)

and/or

  • Have attended a Literature from Taiwan workshop at the BCLT Summer School in the last 3 years

If you are unsure about your eligibility, please e-mail bclt@uea.ac.uk and we will advise.

To apply for the Advanced Translation Workshop you must do the following:

  1. Download, complete and return the 2024 Advanced Translation Workshop Application Form
  2. Download, complete and return the 2024 Advanced Translation Workshop Personal Details Form.

You will be asked to include a sample translation in your application of up to 400 words. The sample can be from an existing piece, whether published or not. You do not need to translate something new for the application. Ideally the sample translation should be from the same genre as the project you would be proposing for the workshop. 

Please save your completed application form and personal details form as separate PDFs and ensure that your FULL NAME is included in the file names.

Please email them both as separate PDF files to bclt@uea.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 2nd June 2024 (23.59 BST).