Image: FBM, Fernando Baptista
Publishing Perspectives Staff Report
Next Translation Grant Deadline: November 30
In the run-up to the Philippines’ 2025 guest of honor year at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20), the Philippines’ National Book Development Board (NBDB) is working to build its level of translation for Philippine literature.
Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz is the author, educator, and co-head with publisher and writer Kristian Sendon Cordero of Frankfurt’s Guest of Honor Philippines translation committee.
In talking about translation and the need for more Philippine works to be sold into international languages and territories, Sta. Romana-Cruz is quoted, saying, “Translation is the bridge that links Filipino literature to the world, breaking cultural barriers and bringing our stories to the global stage.”
She points to one tangible benefit from the fact that English is one of the two officially designated languages of the Philippines, with Filipino (Tagalog), the latter being effectively the lingua franca of the market.”
Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz
For many years, English has been the language of instruction in schools in the Philippines. The result is that many of the country’s books are written and read in English. With the advent of Wattpad and other digital platforms, Filipino authors writing in English reach more international readers.
Despite this accessibility, it’s interesting to note that the majority of the country’s people being surveyed tell researchers they prefer to read in the national language, Filipino, as indicated in a recent readership study conducted by the National Book Development Board.
“One advantage of translating Philippine works,” Sta. Romana-Cruz says, “is that many books are already written in English, allowing publishers to translate directly from a widely spoken language—making the process more cost-effective for investors.
“Filipino books offer a rich blend of culture, heritage, history, and unique ecology, making them fascinating to global readers.”
What’s more, organizers say that with more than 135 local languages, the Philippines can claim that despite its colonial history, which privileged the colonial languages, Filipinos have been linguistically resilient and adaptable.
“The survival of these languages is ensured by works of translation and publication.”
A Translation Grant Program for Publishers
One actionable approach being promoted by the guest of honor organizers is the offer of grants from the NBDB’s Translation Subsidy Program.
International publishers who have bought translation rights to a published Philippine book are eligible to apply for this financial support. Applicants can be publishing houses of any size registered outside of the Philippines, legally operating in their own markets.
The original work to be translated must be published in the Philippines and written in any Philippine language. It must not already have a translation in the language the applicant is applying for.
Eligibility will be based on several criteria:
- Relevance and/or importance of the work to be translated
- The feasibility of the production schedule
- The production scale and/or distribution plan
- The applying publisher’s experience in translation projects and rights negotiations
This is a grant program already in its third cycle for 2024, and applications for that round should be made until November 30.
In 2025, the grant program will reopen in two waves:
- The first call for applications is to be issued between April 1, with a deadline of May 31 to apply. Successful grantees will announced on June 30.
- The second cycle’s call for applications is to open on August 1, with a deadline of November 20 to apply. Those getting grants will be announced by on December 3o.
Information on guidelines and application for these translation grants is here.
Philippine Books and Translationpen
The Philippines’ program organizers tell Publishing Perspectives that there are three main categories of translated work that come into play:
- Local publications translated into English and in different Philippine languages
- Books originally published in the Philippines that have been translated into non-Philippine languages
- International publications translated into Filipino or other Philippine languages
Among the most translated works from the Philippines are José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891), which reportedly have been translated into 10 different languages with new English editions released by Penguin Random House.
These late 19th-century novels continue to resonate with readers particularly those interested in postcolonial literature. The literary works of Rizal that reflect how literature mirrors societies is the nexus of the 2025 Guest of Honor participation of the Philippines at Frankfurt.
Succeeding writers after Rizal who were later declared “National Artists for Literature” include Nick Joaquin (The Woman Who Had Two Navels) and F. Sionil José (Mass; The Pretenders; Po-on; My Brother, My Executioner; and Tree) are now translated into several languages, gaining international recognition.
In more recent years, Miguel Syjuco’s novel Ilustrado (2010), which won the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 2010 QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, has been translated into 12 languages, suggesting that there may be a growing interest abroad in contemporary Philippine literature abroad.
Katharina Teutsch, jury chair of the 2023 German Book Prize, highlighted some themes of that list last year, writing, “This conversation is about the things that shape us: about our upbringings and social origins, political ideologies, dramatic changes in governing systems, and the hardships of migration—in other words, about everything that makes up our present and challenges it.”
The Philippines program organizers say those issues are explored in José Dalisay’s Soledad’s Sister, one of the most prominent Filipino novels to be showcased at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Translated into German by Niko Fröba and titled Last Call Manila, the book has enjoyed success since its 2023 publication.
Dalisay’s first novel, Killing Time in a Warm Place, released in 1992, has also been picked up for translation into German by Transit Verlag, in time for the Philippines’ participation as the Guest of Honor at Frankfurt.
More contemporary Filipino works translated into German include F. Sionil José’s Gagamba (tr. Markus Ruckstuhl); Kristine Ong Muslim’s collection The Drone Outside (tr. Christian Veit Eschenfelder); Erin Entrada Kelly’s Hello, Universe (tr. Birgitt Kollmann); Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s Trese graphic novels (tr. Jens R. Nielsen); Daryll Delgado’s Remains (tr. Gabriele Haefs); Luna Sicat Cleto’s Bago Mo Ako Ipalaot (tr. Annette Hug).
Tuttle Publishing, the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia, has also recently brought Filipino works in translation to the world, such as Bob Ong’s The Boy with the Snake in His Schoolbag, and Edgar Calabia Samar’s Janus Silang and the Creature of Tabon.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurt’s 2025 Guest of Honor Philippines program is here, more on the Philippine market is here, more on guest of honor programs in world publishing’s book fairs and trade shows is here, and more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here.
