Work by an award-winning Welsh author is to be translated into at least two Balkan languages following a multilingual workshop in North Wales in April 2010.
Owen Martell will spend a week at the Tŷ Newydd National Writers’ Centre in Gwynedd working with writers from Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia.
His Welsh-language novel Dyn yr Eiliad (The Other Man) will be translated into Serbian by Milan Dobričić and his short story collection Dolenni Hud (Welsh Knot) to Macedonian by Igor Isakovski, with plans for a possible Croatian edition.
Novelist Siân Melangell Dafydd will also take part in the translation workshop and representatives from the Welsh publishing industry have been invited to meet the writers.
The Tŷ Newydd workshop (6-11 April 2010) is the latest stage in a unique literary collaboration called Word Express.
Word Express was launched in October 2009 when 20 young writers from 12 different countries – including Owen Martell from Wales – travelled by train across the Balkans to Turkey.
During the journey, the writers exchanged work and stopped off along the way to give readings and to take part in writing workshops.
The writers involved in the project are now working on translations of each other’s work in locations across Europe.
Word Express is organised by Literature Across Frontiers and Delta Publishing with the support of the EU Culture Programme and the British Council.
Several local partners are also involved, including Wales Literature Exchange which is leading the Tŷ Newydd workshop as part of its Translators’ House Wales programme.
“We are delighted that the first Word Express workshop following October’s train journey is to be held in Wales and that the work of one of our key authors is to be translated into Serbian and Macedonian,” said Sioned Puw Rowlands, Director of Wales Literature Exchange.
“Owen Martell is one of ten authors who feature on Wales Literature Exchange’s Bookshelf for 2009-10 and he was the Welsh representative on the 2009 Scritture Giovani project which has been supported by WLE since its inception. We also hope that the workshop will lead to translations of Siân Melangell Dafydd’s novel Y Trydydd Peth which won the Prose Medal at the 2010 National Eisteddfod of Wales.”
Translators’ House Wales is a joint venture between Wales Literature Exchange and Ty Newydd National Writers’ Centre, in collaboration with Literature Across Frontiers, HALMA and Academi.
