Make Translator Portraits, Not War

The European Council of Literary Translators' Associations, CEATL, has announced its third video competition to raise the profile of literary translators. This year they want portraits of literary translators, which sounds like a fine idea to me. Send them your video by 1 September, when voting starts for one week via a Facebook page.

Spot the Translator Contest

CEATL is an umbrella group for European literary translators' associations, now covering 26 countries. I didn't even know there were 26 countries in Europe!

And now they're fighting back on the familiar translator invisibility front. People sometimes tend to forget that translators exist, which isn't helped by publishers who don't credit us prominently or reviews that don't have space to name us. I have a special tag devoted to translator invisibility because it's a subject dear to my heart. I just counted and it now encompasses 19 entries. But how to raise the profile of literary translators? CEATL has had an exciting idea.

They're holding a contest for video artists, which you can read about on their Facebook event page. I quote: CEATL is

calling for video artists to create sparky and clever short films reflecting the existence and importance of literary translators, their challenges, and their role in literature. Videos up to three minutes long are accepted, and a prize of 1000 Euros will be awarded for the winner on the International Translation Day, the 30th of September 2012.

Make films! Discover how much the camera loves translators! Join the competition! Win lots and lots of money! Make the world a better place! You know you want to.