Found in Translation Gdańsk Literary Meetings

The fourth edition of “Found in Translation” Gdańsk Literary Meetings will take place on 11–13 April 2019 in Gdańsk. It will take us on a Journey to the East – all meetings will be structured around the literatures and cultures of countries located beyond Poland’s eastern border, and in the Middle and Far East. 

Our aim is to offer an interesting and varied perspective on translation. We want to showcase the art of translation to the broader audience and organize conversations on literary translation with writers, artists representing various disciplines, literary critics and, most importantly, the translators and readers themselves.

The fourth edition of “Found in Translation” will include some festival favourites, such as conversations between writers and their translators or a translator sparring. However, we have also prepared a number of surprising and unusual events, ranging from exercises for the mind and body to explorations of new translation-related areas.

The key to the fourth edition of Gdańsk Literary Meetings is “journey”.  Translators are always travellers in a sense, even if they never venture from behind their desks, and travellers, in turn, also act as translators – especially if they decide to write down their experience. This dimension of literary translation will be particularly emphasized, and festival guests will include translators of far-off literatures, reportage writers and writers-travellers. Adopting an outsider’s perspective on one’s own culture, literature and language is always an enriching, if difficult, experience. Travelling and returning, the two poles of translators’ experience, understood both literally and metaphorically, will form the basis of the literary programme of festival encounters.

Another part of the festival is the official presentation of the Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Translation Award.  It will be granted in two categories: for the translation of a single work and for lifetime achievement.