PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant

PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund was established in the summer of 2003 by an endowed gift of $730,000 from Michael Henry Heim and Priscilla Heim, in response to the dismayingly low number of literary translations currently appearing in English. Its purpose is to promote the publication and reception of translated international literature in English.

Thanks to the generosity of Michael Henry Heim and Priscilla Heim’s endowment, PEN America has awarded grants to almost 200 winning projects. The Fund has been uniquely successful in finding publishers for major international works, encouraging younger translators to enter the field, and introducing English-speaking readers to new and exciting voices.

Over the 16 years of its existence, the Fund has given grants of $2,000–$4,000 to nearly 200 translations from over 35 languages, including Armenian, Basque, Estonian, Farsi, Finland-Swedish, Lithuanian and Mongolian, as well as French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic. Among the 108 projects awarded grants in the Fund’s first 13 years of operation (2004–2016), 91 (nearly 70 percent) have thus far been published or are forthcoming from a publisher. Many of those books found their publishers as a result of being awarded a grant by the Fund. In addition to being excerpted and favorably reviewed in a host of magazines including The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Granta, The Paris Review, Words Without Borders, The Literary Review, Mandorla, and many others, about 20 percent of the published PEN/Heim Translation Fund projects have won or been shortlisted for major literary awards.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• Translations of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama, originally written by a single individual.
• Translations should not have previously appeared in English in print or should have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation.
• Works should be translations-in-progress, as the grant aims to provide support for completion.
• There are no restrictions on the nationality or citizenship of the translator, but the works must be translated into English.
• Projects may have a maximum of two translators but are limited to one original author.
• Translators may only submit one project per year.
  • Projects that have been previously submitted and have not received a grant are unlikely to be reconsidered in a subsequent year.

Ineligibility

• Translations of works with multiple original authors, such as anthologies, translations of literary criticism, and scholarly or otherwise technical texts.
• Translators who have previously been awarded grants by the Fund are ineligible to reapply for three years after the year in which they receive a grant.