In Translation is an initiative of the British Council in partnership with the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) and the Sahitya Akademi, that supports the translation of regional literary works into and out of English, through workshops, round tables, seminars and readings. Recognizing the need for quality translation in India, the endeavour is to develop a range of activities both in India and the UK to support translation of regional language writing into and out of English. This series began with an autumn training course for translators in Delhi in 2013.
Autumn School for Literary Translation
The Autumn School for Literary Translation was based on the BCLT’s International Literary Translation Summer School, which is held at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) since 2000.
The Autumn School brought together writers and translators for an intensive week of literary translation workshops. The workshops were in Punjabi to English, English to Punjabi, Assamese to English and English to Assamese, with a focus on the short story. Each workshop group comprised of five participants targeting early to mid-career practising literary translators, looking to improve their literary translation skills and develop their professional network.
The writers included two 2013 Granta novelists, Ned Beuman and Evie Wyld along with the eminent Punjabi writer, Prem Prakash and the Assamese writer, Atulananda Goswamy. The translators included Hina Nandarajog, Pranjit Borah, Rana Nayar and Pradip Acharya.
Based on the translations done by the workshop participants, Ned and Evie’s short stories will be available in Punjabi and Assamese and Prem and Atulananda’s short stories would be available in English. The translated short stories will soon be published by Sahitya Akademi.