Banff International Literary Translation Centre (BILTC) | Literary Arts

Overview

The Banff International Literary Translation Centre (BILTC) offers student, emerging, and professional literary translators a period of uninterrupted work on a current project. Participants will work in a trilingual environment with consulting translators and peers, resulting in a mutually beneficial learning experience.

Participants will work individually and as a group with a faculty of accomplished translators of French, English, and Spanish. Participants will also have an opportunity to consult with the author whose work they are translating.

What does the program offer?

The BILTC program offers individual work sessions with consulting translators and the program director. Accepted translators can expect to present their work-in-progress at round table sessions held three times a week and moderated by the program director and guest faculty. The round table sessions will include a broader group discussion of issues and challenges faced in the practice of literary translation.

A guest publisher will share experiences on translation in an informal talk, and translators will have the opportunity to read from their works-in-progress at an open reading event. Readings and presentations of experiences related to writing and translating may be shared at additional informal sessions. 

Who should apply?

BILTC welcomes applications from translators at various career stages including student, emerging, and professional translators. Participants seeking time to focus on a current literary project and an opportunity to connect with literary translators from around the world will benefit greatly from this program.

All applicants must be translators from the Americas translating literature from anywhere in the world, or translators from anywhere in the world translating literature from the Americas.

Eligible projects include translations of works of fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, children’s literature, oral tradition, and drama. We especially welcome projects involving Indigenous languages of the Americas. Translator applicants’ program applications should be filled out in the same language that they plan to translate work into.

Application Deadline: January 30, 2019

Date: June 03 - June 22, 2019