São Paulo – Foreign publishers interested in publishing books by Brazilian authors in their countries can apply for grants from Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN, the National Library Foundation). The foundation issued a new open call this week and is accepting entries until May 2nd, 2017. Selected parties will get up to US$ 8,000 in funding for translation and publishing of books, and up to US$ 4,000 for re-edition projects, according to information released by the foundation.
The action is an initiative of the Support Program for Translation and Publishing of Brazilian Authors Abroad, intended to spread Brazilian culture and literature out of the country. Publishers from any country can apply, for translation into any language. The books can be printed or digital, but must have been written by Brazilian-born or naturalized authors, and must have been published in Portuguese in Brazil.
According to FBN, the books must be literature or humanities, especially novels, tales, poetry, chronicles, children’s, teenagers, comic books, theater, reference books, literary essays, social essays, essays for popularization of science, tales and poems anthologies, whole or in parts. The money will be mostly intended to cover translation and publishing costs.
The open call’s validity period, from 2015 to 2017, will be divided into five different deadlines for entry. The first one ends on July 29th this year. Further entries will be accepted until October 13th, 2015, April 4th , 2016, September 1st, 2016 and, finally, May 2nd, 2017. The results will be announced approximately twenty days after each deadline, according to the open call’s calendar.
In 2015, R$ 300,000 (US$ 98,000 at current exchange rate) in disbursements are expected. There is no maximum number of entries per publisher. Aspects will be considered such as relevance of publication for the promotion of Brazilian culture and literature, and consistence of proposal, including information such as author’s curriculum, distribution project, publisher’s catalog, and execution capabilities. The evaluation committee will set the total amount to be provided, based on the specificities of each proposal.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum