Amazon Funds Ledig House

Following on yesterday’s spectacular Ledig House event (we’ll have the video up soon), it only seems appropriate to spread the word about Amazon’s latest grant to this admirable organization. From the press release:

Writers Omi at Ledig House, a part of Omi International Arts Center, has been awarded a $26,000 grant from Amazon.com to support two “Amazon.com Translator Fellowships” in 2012. Both fellowships will support a one-month residency at Ledig House for the selected translators. Application for the Amazon.com Translator Fellowships will be open for all translators who wish to apply.

In addition to the translator fellowships, Amazon.com will fund Translation Lab, a week-long special, intensive residency for five collaborating writer-translator teams in the spring of 2012.

With the support of Amazon.com, Ledig House will invite five American translators to Ledig House for one week. These translators will be invited along with the writers whose work they are translating. This focused residency will provide an integral stage of refinement, allowing translators to dialogue with the writers about text-specific questions. It will also serve as an essential community-builder for English-language translators who are working to increase the amount of international literature available to American readers.

According to Ledig House’s director, DW Gibson, “Translators often talk about the questions they compile for authors they are translating, questions of great nuance that require discussion, questions about the history or intension of a word, phrase, or bit of slang. Translation Lab will give translators the opportunity to directly address these questions in a collaborative setting.”

Ledig House’s basic program is absolutely fantastic, and I think the Translation Lab will be a huge boon for translators, since that interaction is extremely valuable. And the Ledig House is a fantastic space to work . . .