Participants in a 2024 Berlin meeting of Ukrainian literature translators. Image: Atlas-CITL
By Jarosław Adamowksi | @JaroslawAdamows
Open for ‘Scouting Residency’ Applications
Today (June 16), a collective open call for scouting residencies for literary translators is announced by European literary organizations working to promote the Archipelagos project. The program is designed to unearth the diversity of literary voices in Europe by offering residencies to literary translators working in lesser-used languages.
Led by France’s Atlas-Citl (International College of Literary Translators), the Archipelagos project has eight main partners from seven countries. They work in 10 languages. There are four associated partners that support the project with dedicated activities such as a summer school for booksellers, seminars for librarians, and translation workshops.
The Archipelagos project will offer residencies over the next three years for more than 100 literary translators throughout Europe. There are also to be 10 translation workshops expected to attract as many as 150 participants.
The main partners of the project include:
‘The Translator’s Scouting Activity’
Julie Duthey, who is responsible for communication at Atlas, tells Publishing Perspectives that the Archipelagos project was created to help develop linguistic diversity in Europe’s translated literature marketplace. The key goal is to highlight how literary translators facilitate the discovery of less translated literatures.
Julie Duthey
“Literature written in European languages other than English,” Duthey says, “is in the minority in this market. According to the Translators on the Cover report, around 60 percent of books translated each year into French, German, or Italian are translated out of English.
“A little-known and often unpaid part of the translator’s work consists of finding new voices,” she says, “by funding residencies dedicated to the translator’s scouting activity. Archipelagos recognizes and supports this research. We support translators from all over Europe in their scouting activity, offering them the opportunity to prepare a portfolio and build trusting relationships with publishers.”
During their residencies, the project’s participants can work on synopsis and translation excerpts of the books they discover, and their work can be found on the project’s site.
“The final beneficiaries of this program,” Duthey says, “are the publishers, who can raise what we call ‘unseen stories,’ giving visibility to diverse experiences of the world, and new perspectives.”
Atlas, the French organization, plays an overarching role in the project, according to Duthey
“As a lead partner,” she says, “we coordinate the project activities, communications, and deliverables with and for all partners. As one of the residency hosts, we provide successful candidates with an accommodation at the Collège International des Traducteurs Littéraires or elsewhere in Europe, depending on their project, and a bursary to cover their expenses.
“We bring together translators for translation and editorial workshops. We highlight their discoveries through public readings and a podcast series.”
‘Empowering Translators as Scouts and Connectors’
Established in 2024, Archipelagos is a three-year project. Between 2024 and 2026, the initiative is expected to support more than 25 European languages, through its scouting residencies and workshops.
Monica Dimitrova
Monica Dimitrova, the communications manager at Next Page Foundation, tells Publishing Perspectives that Archipelagos is “more than a literary project. It’s a cultural act of resistance against linguistic marginalization and a step toward a more inclusive, interconnected European identity through literature.
“By empowering translators as scouts and connectors, it not only uncovers new literary treasures but also builds lasting bridges between communities, languages, and readers.”
Some of the planned professional and public events to be held this year and in 2026 include: a workshop for translators translating from Lithuanian planned for October in Vilnius; and Adab, a festival on Arabic literatures in December in Paris.
“Our next big step is the last open call for a scouting residency in 2026,” Duthey says. “Translators will be able to apply until October 5. Literary translators from across Europe can apply for residencies.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on Europe is here, more on endangered languages is here, and more on translation and translators is here.
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