Circulation of European literary works

This action will support projects that will translate, publish, distribute and promote works of fiction written by authors who are nationals of - or residents in - Creative Europe countries, or are recognised as part of the literary heritage of these countries

Themes and priorities

In line with the current cultural policy priorities, proposals should address:

1. the following Call specific priorities:

• to strengthen the transnational circulation and diversity of European literary works;
• to encourage the translation, publication and promotion of works of fiction written in less widely spoken languages in order to increase their distribution in wider markets in Europe and beyond;
• to enlarge the audience for European books, especially to young people by actively encouraging them to discover the diversity of European literature;
• to contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of the book sector by encouraging cooperation between different actors within the book value chain- including booksellers and libraries;
• to promote the literary translator profession and the principles of visibility, good working conditions and fair remuneration of translator. In this respect publishers should ensure that the name of the translator(s) is in the published book, preferably on the cover, as well as the source language.

NB: in order to continue to provide support to Ukraine in the field of books, projects aimed at providing books in the Ukrainian language to Ukrainian refugees and displaced people will be encouraged. (See the conditions of eligibility in Section 6 of this document. )

2. the following cross-cutting issues as described in section 1 Background.

(i) inclusion and diversity, notably gender balance, and

(ii) greening of Creative Europe,

Activities that can be funded

Translation, pubblication, promotion and distribution activities as well as activities addressing the themes and priorities described above.

The proposed activities should be grouped, in the application form part B, in coherent work packages (i.e. major sub-division of the project). Each work package must have a corresponding list of activities, deliverables, milestones and critical risks (see section 10).

Expected Impact

The action will support around 40 projects, implemented either by a single entity (mono-beneficiary) or by a grouping of organisations (multi-beneficiary).

Each project must be based on a sound editorial and promotional strategy covering a package of at least 5 eligible works of fiction translated from and into eligible languages, and must include the following elements

• the proposed package contributes to the diversity of literature in the target country (or countries) by including works of fiction from countries that are underrepresented, and in particular, works written in lesser-used languages,
• the format of the book and the distribution strategy help ensure wide and easy access to the works
• the promotion strategy allows for an enlargement of the readership,
• the project encourages collaboration between authors, translators, publishers, distributors, booksellers, libraries, festivals, literary events, etc.,
• the project contributes to raising the profile of translators and respects the principle of fair remuneration,
• the project addresses the Creative Europe programme cross-cutting issues and the Culture Strand 2024 priorities (see section 1.Background for details).