Arabic-language titles on books at the Arab Heritage Institution Archive stand in the 2023 Sharjah International Book Fair. Image: Shahdmurshed, CC BY-SA 4.0
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
A Jump of More Than 15 Percent in Applications
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As the autumn publishing event season looks past Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20) toward Sharjah International Book Fair (November 6 to 17), China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (November 15 to 17); and Guadalajara International Book Fair (November 30 to December 8), followed by the International Publishers Association‘s (IPA) 34th International Publishers Congress (December 3 to 6) at Guadalajara, the United Arab Emirates’ Sharjah Book Authority has announced that it has received 2,506 applications to the 13th iteration of the Sharjah International Book Fair translation grant program.
That total of grant applications includes 1,215 applications that were submitted as part of the annual Sharjah Publishers Conference professional program last year. This year’s Publishers Conference runs November 3 to 5.
As many watch for progress in translation around the Arab world—especially as programs such as Sharjah’s develop connections into world publishing to help bring more Arabic literature to the West—it’s interesting that the total of applications at Sharjah is a 15.2-percent gain on applications in prior years, and the 303 approved grants are a jump of 40 titles over the previous round’s 263 approved grants.
For rights professionals and publishers who track where exports and imports are having the most impact, the approved titles comprise:
- 119 books being translated from Arabic into other languages
- 184 books being translated into Arabic
Those figures can be seen by many as heartening, because they demonstrate that literature is moving both into and out of the Arab world, exactly the kind of exchange that represents a healthy trade environment.
As is the case in the literary and publishing activities of the UAE’s third emirate, the Sharjah translation grant is a program created at the direction of Sharjah’s Sheikh Sultan Mohammed bin Al Qasimi, who earlier this month presided over the inauguration of the new Arabic Cultural Center in Milan, a project facilitated by the Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chair of the Sharjah Book Authority.
Related Article: UAE: Sharjah International Book Fair Opens Its Awards. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) translation grant provides publishers with cash grants of between US$1,500 and $4,000, money that can be applied to the entire or partial costs of translation and publication.
Speaking to the news of the translation grant allocations for this year, Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, is quoted, saying, “The SIBF translation grant … is intended to further the impact of translation on enhancing dialogue among world cultures, broadening the scope of intellectual and creative Arabic content, and boosting its contribution to human civilization, honoring publishers, authors, and thinkers through translating their works.”
Arabic Titles Translated Into Other Languages
Here’s a breakdown of titles being translated from Arabic into other languages, first in the main three languages receiving Arabic work:
- Turkish, 33 books
- English, 19 books
- Persian, 14
The fund also approved the translation of 20 books into Malayalam; eight into Macedonian; six into Portuguese; six into Albanian; five into French; four into Greek; four into Romanian; three into Italian; two into Serbian; two into Ukrainian; two into Tamil; and one into German.
Titles in Other Languages Translated into Arabic
- Seventy-one books from English into Arabic
- Forty from Turkish into Arabic
- Thirteen from Indonesian into Arabic
- Eleven from Spanish into Arabic
- Ten from French into Arabic
The Fund also approved the translation of seven books from Italian; five from Russian; five from Serbian; four from Ukrainian; three from Armenian; three from Japanese; three from Slovak; and two books from Hungarian. In addition, the translation fund approved the translation of one book each from German, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Persian, and Romanian.
Looking at books in Arabic and English at Sharjah International Book Fair, 2021. Image: SIBF
More from Publishing Perspectives on book and publishing awards is here, more on Sharjah and the Sharjah International Book Fair is here, and more on book publishing in the United Arab Emirates is here. More on Arabic language literature and issues is here and more on translators and translation is here.
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