When English PEN began consulting with translators, agents, and publishers in 2020, to discuss an intervention supporting sample translations, it became quickly clear that there was both need and opportunity. Need, because the organic way this part of translated-literature publishing has developed over the years has meant translators doing unpaid work, publishers having limited routes for acquiring work from relatively underrepresented languages and territories, and everyone involved in the creation and use of samples separated by barriers to communication and connection. Opportunity, because addressing issues of fair pay, inclusion, and opportunity goes hand-in-glove with diversifying both the landscape of international writing, and the communities and individuals endorsed to create it.
The findings of our year-long consultation were clear: there was agreement across the sector as to this need and opportunity, and there was productive disagreement about how best to balance the competing priorities of its constituent parts. However, as we worked with translators, agents, publishers, and others to design–in a participatory fashion–precisely how the project now known as PEN Presents should work, it became clearer and clearer that these ostensibly competing imperatives were in fact complementary. Funding the often-unpaid labor of sample translation, providing editorial support, platforming work, and sharing it with agents and publishers, harnessing the position of an organization like English PEN to break down existing barriers between translators and commissioning editors, ensuring inclusion and access, and therein giving Anglophone readers access to more diverse literatures, created by a more diverse community–this was all in everyone’s interest.
Round one
And so, in June 2022, we launched the inaugural round of PEN Presents, focusing on literatures of the languages of India, supported by the British Council. Opening the scheme to translators anywhere in the world and at any stage of their careers, we took the unusual step of not asking for samples, but instead proposals for their creation–in other words, not asking for unpaid creative labor. A shortlist of 12 applicants would receive grants to produce their samples, and a final selection of them (made independently by an international, cross-sector panel of experts) would be given editorial support, published online, and promoted to U.K. publishers of translated literature.
This first call received 49 submissions from 13 languages; our latest–a fully open call, for work of any form, era, genre, language, region, and context, in partnership with Translating Women and supported by the University of Exeter and the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)–drew 125 from 51 languages and 53 countries. The size of these responses bears out two points: that excellent literature of course already exists everywhere and in every language, along with the talented translators poised to convey them into new markets; and that there’s an imperative (and demand) for financial and network-development support that can enable acquisition, prioritizing biblio-diversity as it does.
Changing landscape
We aim to continue meeting these demands, alternating between focused and fully open calls for PEN Presents–recognizing the value both of zooming out as far as we can, and zooming in to work expressly in the contexts of greatest need. We are fortunate that the participatory development of the program can be sustained through an Advisory Network of remarkable translators, scouts, agents, publishers, and other literary professionals and activists, who continue to shape PEN Presents and ensure that it moves to meet a changing landscape, rather than simply fitting into the peaks and valleys of the current ecology.
We also recognize that interventions like these need to be carefully calibrated, supporting the sustainable development of the whole chain of production rather than unwittingly throwing it out of kilter. That’s why we champion the role of sector-wide collaboration–with individuals across the chain; with other initiatives advocating for equity, rights, and fair pay; and with international counterparts fostering a more sustainable and diverse translation economy.
We are thrilled that the shortlist for this round will be announced in the Literary Translation Centre at London Book Fair, a space in which that collaborative spirit is cherished, and in which we work to advance the rights, opportunities, and interests of literary translators–the shining lights of international literature.
Creating Samples and Getting Projects Acquired, in partnership with English PEN, will take place in the Literary Translation Centre at 4.30 p.m. today.
