June 17 2023, KROKODIL Literary Festival in Belgrade, Serbia
The network of European literary translation centres RECIT took part in the 15th edition of the annual KROKODIL Literary Festival in Belgrade, Serbia with the discussion ‘The Importance of Translation Residencies’. The event took place on June 17 at 11:30 at the POP ZONE of the festival, located at the amphitheater and park in front of the Museum of Yugoslavia, 6 Mihaila Mike Jankovića St, Belgrade.
The speakers at the event were Yana Genova, president of RECIT – Réseau Européen des Centres Internationaux de Traducteurs littéraires and director of the Next Page Foundation; Jörn Cambreleng, ATLAS – Association pour la promotion de la traduction littéraire – CITL; Mladen Vesković, Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia; Nataša Srdić, translator; and other representatives of the RECIT network.
Translation residencies offer a space for focused creative work and in this way contribute to the translation diversity in Europe. Although translation centres across Europe differ in many specific ways, residencies are the background champions of literary translation, and thankfully, their indispensable role is slowly gaining more appreciation, as we see new centres emerge, including in the Western Balkans.
During the event, the Mapping of Literary Translation Residencies in Europe, produced within the Translation in Motion project will also be presented and discussed. The Mapping sheds a light on the variety of organizational and funding models, and will inspire other organisations, policy makers and cultural activists.
The KROKODIL Literary Festival is initiated and organized by Association KROKODIL, partners in the Translation in Motion project. The festival was primarily conceived as a regional affair dedicated to the promotion of dialogue, reconciliation and reconstruction of broken links particularly in the region of the Western Balkans, and soon became more and more international and has grown into one of the most distinctive and popular events in the region of South-East Europe exploring the most important cultural, political and social topics of the day. Combining different formats such as readings, sofa interviews, panel discussions, workshops, press conferences, film and other audio-visual content, KROKODIL has presented, in its 14 annual editions, hundreds of distinguished writers, artists and public figures from numerous countries.
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The event is part of the Translation in Motion project (1/2/21-31/8/23) that is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
