The Gothenburg Book Fair Fellowship (Sweden)

They strive to create a program that offers a wide range of aspects of Swedish literature and the Swedish book market. The program is partly scheduled and partly open to individual meetings. Translators and publishers will get separate programs, with occasional joint activities.

Priorities

• The grant applications shall be assessed on the basis of the following priorities and selection grounds:
  • Applicants who have experience of and/or the wish to work with quality Swedish literature in translation.
  • Applicants who have not previously participated in the programme.
  • Applicants who have a sufficient command of English in speech and writing to enable them to fully participate in the programme.
  • Applicants outside the Nordic Region.
  • Applicants whose previous published books, and, where appropriate, translations, consists of prose, poetry, children’s and Y/A books, non-fiction and comics of good literary quality.
  • Applicants who run their operations with respect for human rights and for the equal value of all human beings, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, skin colour, national or ethnic origin, linguistic or religious adherence, disability or age.
• The following categories will not be prioritized:
  • Agents who intend to sell rights for foreign works or translators from other languages into Swedish.
  • Educational materials, handbooks, self-help books, academic literature and similar material.

Categories

• For Publishers
  • The scheduled part includes meetings on themes and trends in contemporary Swedish literature, the Swedish book market and Swedish literature from an international perspective. It also includes round table meetings with Swedish editors and other activities to enhance in-depth discussions as well as building relations between book professionals from all over the world.
• For Translators
  • The scheduled part includes meetings on different aspects of the Swedish language, discussions on translation related topics and a Q&A session on support for translators of Swedish literature.
  • The program starts on Wednesday, the day before the book fair, and ends on Friday, the last of the professional days of the book fair. The hotel is booked from Wednesday to Saturday.
  • All the lectures and meetings will be held in English, except for the translator events.
  • Translators who do not want to participate in the program and instead want to visit the book fair on their own, can apply for travel, hotel and seminar card within the ordinary grant for translators.

Funding Information

• If you are travelling from Europe, the travel grant sum is SEK 3000, and if you are travelling from outside of Europe the sum is SEK 10000.

Costs Covered

• The grant covers a contribution to the travel costs (the amount varies depending on whether the applicant is travelling inside or outside Europe), three nights’ hotel accommodation, seminar card and a tailored programme during the days on which the Fellowship programme runs. The travel grant is paid directly to the applicant. The Swedish Arts Council will book and pay for hotel accommodation. The Book Fair will be responsible for seminar cards and premises for the programme.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to apply you must be a translator from Swedish, or a publisher or sub-agent who is interested in working with Swedish literature in translation. You must also be willing to take part in the whole programme. Since the programme is in English they need the participants to have a sufficient command of English in speech and writing.
• A requirement for publishers/sub-agents is that you must run a commercial operation. (This requirement does not, however, apply to translators, instead they need to have had at least one book published, translated from Swedish.) Priority will be given to those who have not previously attended the fair.

Selection Criteria

• The following criteria shall form the basis for the grant in such a way that the overall allocation of grants within each application round is characterised by:
  • Linguistic and geographical diversity
  • Genre diversity in publication and translation
  • The literary quality of the participants’ published works
  • To the greatest possible extent an even gender distribution among participants
  • To the greatest possible extent a match of translators and publishers from the same language area consistency with other possible criteria notified via the annual announcement of the grant.

For more information, visit Swedish Arts Council.