As 2014 draws to an end, Wales Literature Exchange looks back on the past year. Over the coming days we will showcase on our website and through our social media streams ten highlights from 2014.

Our first highlight is the Schwob residency, held at the beginning of January, when Wales Literature Exchange welcomed five foreign authors and translators to Tŷ Newydd: National Writer’s Centre for Wales.

Emilia Ivancu, Jaume Subirana, and Yuvan Chandrashekar translated poetry by R. S. Thomas into Romanian, Catalan and Tamil. Marta Klonowska focused on translating Un Nos Ola Leuad (One Moonlight Night) by Caradog Prichard into Polish, while Professor Wolfgang Schamoni translated works by Kate Roberts into German.

During the residency, the authors and translators discussed with experts and academics, visited places of significance to the works, and further their understanding of the literature scene in Wales.

Schwob was launched in the Netherlands in 2011 to facilitate the promotion of literature, not yet translated, from all parts of Europe. In 2013, the project received financial support through the EU Culture Programme allowing it to expand into an international network. Schwob now works in partnership with literature foundations in six other countries, including Wales, through Wales Literature Exchange, to promote “exceptional but hard to find or undiscovered modern classics that whet the appetite.”

Get a taste of the residency by visiting our Storify page here.
Discover more about the Schwob project here.