São Paulo – Non-Brazilian publishing houses may apply for grants to translate and publish children’s books and comic books by Brazilian authors in their countries. Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN) has opened a call to award financial aid to previously unpublished translation projects, new translations, or reissues of works in those categories. Entries will be accepted up until July 1st, 2013, and the works will be published by March 1st, 2014.
The initiative is a part of the FBN’s Support Program for the Translation and Publication of Brazilian Authors Abroad, linked to the Ministry of Culture. There are no restrictions to languages or countries. The maximum amount granted will be US$ 8,000 and will cover both translation and editing. There is no maximum number of entries from publishing houses, but the works are required to have been published in Brazil.
According to the FBN, the program aims to encourage international publication of Brazilian authors of works for children’s and teens. In 2014, Brazil will be paid a tribute at Italy’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the industry’s leading event worldwide, due in March 2014. Several Brazilian comic books are published worldwide, such as Turma da Mônica (Mônica’s Gang >, and the novel Daytripper, about an obituary writer, which has won the Eisner Prize, the world’s highest comic book honour, in 2011.
The FBN’s grant awarding program has sponsored the translation of 164 books from July 2011 to October 2012. It also accepts bids for translating other types of books by Brazilian authors in other countries. Entries for these sorts of works will be accepted by July 1st, 2013, but the deadline for publication is August 2013, according to the call for entries. The bidding publishing houses are required to not be in debt with the FBN.
Call for entries:
http://www.bn.br/portal/arquivos/pdf/Translation-Grant-2012%20_agosto%202012.pdf
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
