Grants for publishing Latvian literature abroad awarded to 11 projects

On 4^th October, this year's third competition for grants for foreign publishers publishing Latvian literary works abroad was concluded.  After reviewing the applications, the committee consisting of four experts (Vents Zvaigzne, Sigita Kušnere, Eva Eglāja-Kristsone, Pēteris Jankavs) decided to award grants to 11 literary works to be published abroad – 2 of those translated into English, and 9 into other languages. The total sum allocated to publishing of Latvian literature abroad in this competition is 32 448, 29 euros. The competition is financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.

Seven rounds of the competition have been organized so far as a part of the grant programme supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation. The aim of the grant programme is to provide financial support to foreign publishers publishing Latvian literature, thereby developing the interest of foreign publishers in Latvian literature and its translations in different languages. The grant applicants can apply for financial support to cover book translation and production costs. The Programme has been developed and organized by the Latvian Writers' Union.

The next (and this year's final) round is running now - online application can be submitted until 4th of November 2016. In this round, the grants will only be awarded to projects translated into English, since the financial support is linked with Latvia's participation in the London Book Fair 2018 as one of the Market Focus countries.

With the help of the financial instrument supported by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, four literary works by Latvian authors have been translated and published in English allocating altogether 16 309.83 euros. Seventeen projects in other languages (Hindi, Estonian, German, Russian, Norwegian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Swedish, Albanian, Italian and Ukrainian) have also received publishing support of 46 609.60 euros in total.

English-language publishers are welcome to apply here.