Open Call: Balkan Translations Collider Academy
International Academy on Literary Management and Translation Promotion
May 13th - 18th, 2022 - Struga, North Macedonia | May 2023 - Tirana, Albania
The Translations Collider Project Academy aims to explore ways to overcome the imbalances in the literary translation traffic in Europe.
The Academy will create a community of literary management professionals from the Balkans and other parts of Europe, who are committed to play a part in international literary communication. The Academy will offer tools, ideas and contacts to advance less translated literatures in today's highly competitive world.
The Translations Collider Academy will give participants the chance to:
● Discuss and refine the concept of "promoting translations" in all its various aspects - from audience's demand, geopolitical factors, and market forces, to adequate support policies
● Present and promote their work in an international setting
● Learn from success stories and meet the people behind them
● Explore together trends and innovative solutions in promoting literatures from "less used" languages, and further their own initiatives and projects
● Become acquainted with the local literary scene of the host countries
● Catalyze new partnerships and build a lasting network of like-minded people
The Academy will span across two five-day sessions – one between May 13 - May 18 2022 in Struga (North Macedonia) and second in May 2023 in Albania, with short online meetings in-between. At the application phase, the participants are expected to present a concrete project idea that will be further developed with the tutors/speakers between the two sessions and during the interactions/discussion with other international participants.
Please note that admission to the Academy means participation in both sessions, and the online meetings between the two in-person events.
The program comprises of presentations, panel discussions and hands-on workshops on topics such as literary agenting and pitching to publishers, models of public support for literary "export", digital promotion channels, the role of festivals and book fairs, authors and translators as agents, working in partnership across borders and many others.
Detailed programme will be announced in March 2022. Draft programme is available here.
Official language: English.
All travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the Balkan Translations Collider project thanks to the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.
Selected Academy participants will be offered an internship in a corresponding EU organization of their choice as part of the project's international placement scheme.
How to join the Academy
The Academy welcomes representatives of organizations from the Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) as well as from EU member states who are active in the international literary exchange, irrespective of their organization's legal status (public, civic, municipal, private, etc.). Eligible organizations include but are not limited to publishers, festivals, associations, public support programs, literary agents and scouts, residency and literature centers, and any other cultural organizations, who are active partakers in cross-border literary communication. In addition, the Academy will reserve up to three spots for upcoming cultural managers (graduate students or young professionals).
In order to take full advantage of opportunities offered by the Academy, we advise organizations to nominate managers, programmers, coordinators or other decision makers at senior positions in the respective organization.
To participate, please, save the dates May 13 - 18 2022 for the Struga session and fill out the form here by February 21 2022, Monday. Candidates will be informed about their admission by February 28 2022.
For any questions or comments, please, feel free to contact
Vladimir Jankovski, project manager
Goten Publishing
contact[at] gotenpublishing.com
Access to the Academy – for registered participants only with a valid green pass (EU Covid-vaccination certificate or equivalent) issued no more than six months prior the last day of the Academy in case no booster dose has been administered. Participants are obliged to observe all Covid-related rules issued by the host-country government for the duration of their stay.
The organizers are prepared to transform the Academy from in-person to online (partially or in full) if the circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic make it impossible to carry out the program in-person in a way that ensures the safety of everybody involved.
The Balkan Translations Collider Project is a three-year initiative of Next Page Foundation in partnership with ARGH (Serbia), POETEKA (Albania), Sandorf (Croatia), Goten (North Macedonia), and Podgorica Municipality (Montenegro) that aims to boost translation flows between the literatures of the Western Balkans and the EU. 
