Issue 57 - April 2009

Encounters Program - Call for Applications

Next Page Foundation announced a call for applications for supporting translations between Arabic and the languages of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Detailed information on the requirements and the application procedure are available on www.npage.org. Inquiries and letters of intend should be addresses to Maria Velichkova. The deadline for application is 15 May 2009.

All credits to Dar Kredieh Publishers of Beirut, to its translators Nadim Issa, Murad Awad, Kamal Maksoud, and to the invisible editors behind their books

Quality of translations is one of the most often quoted problems when Arab publishing, and especially when Arab academic publishing, is in question. The other is the often complete lack of editorial control and even proof-reading.

Well, we have some good news to report!

Dar Kredieh Publishers of Beirut had just published two translations from Turkish that stand out by its quality of translation and careful editing. In the history of Next Page’s support for translations in the region, it hasn’t been very often that our independent evaluator of a translation would clearly state: “The linguistic structures in the target language are powerful, the text is coherent, the vocabulary is well-selected, and the style is eloquent and elegant”. Particulary when it comes to such a rare and challenging language combination as Turkish to Arabic. Attempting to reach the highest quality of the final text, based on the translators’ perfect understanding of the source language, publishers do several phases of editing and proof-reading that often take longer and cost more than the translation itself.

And Dar Kredieh is not exactly a publisher specialized in translations. The house was founded in year 2000 in Beirut and – as many others in the region – is also in distribution, represents several UK and US publishers for the region and publishes primarily university textbooks.

3%

Only three percent of world’s water is fresh!

Only three percent of all books, published in the US are works in translation.

Only a very small fraction of these titles are covered by the mainstream media.

As a result, a huge pile of brilliant fiction and poetry in translation is unnoticed and practically never finds its path to the potential readers.

Imagine this huge pile of books as a fragile and invisible “Tower of Babel”, built by the efforts of writers, translators, editors, designers, printers, and publishers. …Invisible, and therefore threatened with extinction.

Here comes the great missionary idea of Three Percent. Three Percent is a web resource, based at the University of Rochester, launched in the summer of 2007. Its aim is to take care of the “fresh water”, to sustain a rich and vibrant book culture through providing the reading audience with information about the international literary world, reviews about new publications, and samples of translated works. Besides this, Three Percent keeps track on how new books are making their way to the American readers through updated statistics, special featuring of independent bookstores, and announcing the upcoming translation events.

Of course, while browsing in Three Percent, you can leave your comments after the articles published, and support the whole initiative. Be the first to participate and “drink” from the resource of Three Percent! It is fresh, it is vital, it is timely.