Pwy a beth?

Intro

Wales Literature Exchange (WLE) aims to promote the best literature of Wales abroad and contribute to the internationalisation of the Welsh literary scene. Our motto is ‘Translating Wales, Reading the World’ and we cooperate with our sister organisation Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) and many other partners to shine a spotlight on the diverse, bilingual literary landscape of Wales and provide opportunities for Welsh authors to become known beyond our borders and for organisations, including publishers, to connect internationally. We are based at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the university of Wales Trinity Saint David, adjacent to the National Library of Wales.

Translation Grants Fund

Our Translation Grants Fund is open for applications from publishers twice a year with a deadline June and December. Publishers can apply for the translation of books written by Welsh authors in Welsh and English into other languages. Applications for translation of works written in Welsh into English are also eligible. The fund has facilitated the translation of many titles by Welsh authors into a vast range of languages, from Azeri to Catalan, Arabic to Estonian, and Armenian to Japanese, while the top target languages are Italian, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and Macedonian. For more information click here to download our guidelines and apply online. To browse our database of translations published worldwide click here.

Book Fairs

Our presence at international book fairs gives visibility to our mission, keeps us in contact with global book markets and is instrumental in promoting Welsh literature internationally and facilitating its translation. Annually, we attend two of the largest book fairs in the world, Frankfurt and London, as well as other book fairs in Europe and beyond to connect, network, and strike up partnerships with publishers, translators and literary organisations from around the world. Each year, our annual Bookshelf – a selection of Welsh literary works selected as recommendations for translation – is launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair while we continue adding authors and books to our website throughout the year. Previous Bookshelves have included titles such as Manon Steffan Ros’ Llyfr Glas Nebo / The Blue Book of Nebo, originally written in Welsh, which has so far sold translation rights into nine languages.

International Projects

We participate in international projects in partnership with other organizations in Wales and abroad. Currently, in collaboration with Literature Across Frontiers (LAF), and partners in South East Europe, we have embarked on a new phase of Ulysses Shelter, a project offering exchange residencies to emerging writers and translators, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Welsh authors benefit from other international projects organised by LAF and you can find out more about past and upcoming projects on our and LAF websites. Recent projects took two Welsh authors on an India tour, travelling and meeting Indian audiences with a group of European authors, while recent digital residencies and workshops saw Welsh writers and artists collaborate with counterparts in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Workshops

We organise translation workshops alongside Literature Across Frontiers as part of our commitment to the development of literary translators in Wales as well as providing opportunities for poets to engage in mutual translation of their work and Welsh-language writers to develop self-translation skills.

Resources

Below are links to resources regarding internationalising children’s and young people’s literature. The reports were commissioned and produced in partnership with the Books Council of Wales and British Council Wales.