Seminars

Literary translation is a highly complex endeavour for which there is no standardised training. Several years ago, a start was made to develop innovative ways to exchange experiences and impart knowledge by means of a seminar format. The aim being to formalise the vision of a school of literary translation and ultimately, the creation of an academy for the art of translation. 

Professionally practised, this profession requires lifelong learning, ongoing training in source and native languages, a way to discover better translation strategies and polish an instinctive feel for language, and so much more.

The German Translators' Fund and other cooperation partners of the EÜK organise topical and practical multi-day training seminars to professionalise literary translators. 

The following seminars offering different content were set up:

- Analysis seminars, which are suitable for translators whatever their experiences and, as contrastive seminars, sharpen the eye for diverse structures in different languages,

- Topical workshops dealing with specific problems (including grammatical ones) and, depending on the problem, suitable for translators with and/or without years of professional experience,

- Target language German - for translators with professional experience who are struggling with characteristic problems of translating into German, regardless of the source language,

- Colleague discussions, in which translators present their translations-in-progress for discussion with their colleagues, regardless of the source language. This type of seminar is for translators with several years’ professional experience.

Also offered are bilingual workshops that focus on a specific language pairing in which native speakers and translators discuss their own texts.

Each seminar is intended for a clearly defined group of participants and is announced publicly.