Deadline Extended for PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants

For all of the translators out there rushing to get their Heim Translation Grant applications finished on time . . . pause. Relax. You have another two weeks.

The official deadline for submissions is now January 30th. And if you need the details on how to apply, click here or read below:

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund was established in the summer of 2003 by a gift of $730,000 from Priscilla and Michael Henry Heim in response to the dismayingly low number of literary translations currently appearing in English. Its purpose is to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English. [. . .]

Who is eligible

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund provides grants to support the translation of book-length works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama that have not previously appeared in English in print or have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation.

There are no restrictions on the nationality or citizenship of the translator, but the works must be translated into English.

The Fund seeks to encourage translators to undertake projects they might not otherwise have had the means to attempt.

Anthologies with multiple translators, works of literary criticism, and scholarly or technical texts do not qualify.

As of 2008, translators who have previously been awarded grants by the Fund are ineligible to reapply for three years after the year in which they receive a grant. 

In addition, projects that have already been submitted and have not received a grant are unlikely to be reconsidered in a subsequent year.

Translators may only submit one project per year.

I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this sooner, but starting with this year’s grants, Open Letter is going to donate a copy of The Man Between: Michael Henry Heim & A Life in Translation to all the recipients. It’s only appropriate that they have a copy of the book about the man who made the grant possible . . .

On a tangential note, we recently signed on Guillermo Saccomanno’s Gesell Dome, which we found out about when Andrea Labinger received a Heim award last year. According to the PEN website, 78% of the winning books from the first five years of the Fund have found publishers. So even if you don’t have a publisher lined up for your work, you should definitely apply—you might just find one!