Washington, DC—“What translation can do for us, and what we so desperately need at this juncture in human history, is to radically increase our empathic capacities; to learn, or perhaps relearn, how to listen—to people of all linguistic traditions and hopefully, some day, to beings who don’t ‘speak’ at all,” writes translator Johanna Warren in the National Endowment for the Art’s 2014 collection of essays, The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Literature in Translation. Today, the NEA announced $275,000 in recommended grants to 20 translators to support the new translation of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry from 11 different languages into English, the latest in the NEA’s efforts to bring the work of writers around the globe to a larger audience.

“The NEA is committed to providing Americans with diverse art experiences,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Our support of literary translation provides opportunities for readers to expand their knowledge of other cultures and traditions while also experiencing some of the world’s most talented writers.”

Since 1981, the NEA has awarded 410 fellowships to 363 translators, with translations representing 66 languages and 77 countries. This year’s projects are for translation from 11 different languages: Albanian, Chinese, French, German, Danish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Yiddish. The review criteria for these projects consisted not only of the translators’ skill, but also the importance of a particular work of international literature to English-speaking audiences, including those authors and languages which are often underrepresented. More.

See: National Endowment for the Arts

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