Project 1

Building a network of writers, translators and publishers

The ESA project was developed and conceived alongside an appeal launched by a group of European philosophers, artists and researchers, including Yves Bonnefoy, Edgar Morin, Barbara Cassin, Etienne Balibar, Adonis, Michel Deguy and others, to create a common European culture centred around the imperative of translation.

The ESA is a network open to all authors, translators, mediators and publishers who wish to participate in the creation of a European textual community. This network will serve to mediate and nurture a European intellectual and literary debate, to forge a European identity based on culture, sharing and giving, beyond national discourses. 

The ESA network will primarily serve to help the transmission of literary works from one language to another. It will also contribute to the identification of the gaps, omissions and inadequacies in European translation, distinguishing in each domain, fiction and non-fiction, classic and contemporary, the works which should be translated as a priority, contrary to the editorial logic as dictated by the market.

Project 2 

The Borges/TLHUB Project (Translation & Literary Hub): an Internet platform for European writers, translators and publishers. A European social network of literary works.

The Borges Project is currently being developed, a first version will be launched at the end of 2011. The idea is to develop an Internet tool using the Web 2.0 technology, an open tool available to writers, translators and publishers, to facilitate the links between the different European languages, thus unaffected by the market.

Borges/TLHUB will offer many opportunities for authors and translators to present their work: through book extracts, literary works, translation essays, audio and video documents of performances and public lectures, film extracts and recordings. Borges will also offer the option of contributing to an "online library" by creating links with the world's public libraries. 

Borges/TLHUB is conceived as a semi-open community (as opposed to fully open social networks such as Facebook or Myspace). As a consequence, only authors, translators and editors will have complete access to the contents. The "Readers" will also be able to have access but with some restrictions.

The Borges project is in development. A first version of the platform will be available at the end of the year. However the ESA will occasionally require outside financial support to bring the project to completion: translations of the interface into several languages, presentation of the project in European translation institutions, development of partnerships with major public libraries etc...

Project 3 

The idea of the "Nomadic Conference" was inspired by Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour and by the old nomadic circuses. In its own way, it adopts the image of the intra-European exile, common to the Jewish and Gypsy cultures of Europe, travelling from one city to another, from one language to another. 

In order to organise a cycle of "Nomadic Conferences", the ESA works with writers, translators, mediators and different institutions, book publishers and cultural institutes. The themes and objectives of these conferences will invariably refer to the possibility of building a common European culture in several languages: themes of literary passage, translation, multilingualism, the transmission of literary works etc. The ESA hopes that from one city to another these conferences will help spread a better knowledge of the different corpuses of European literary works.

a.Identifying the blank spaces: Finnegan's List.

Every year, starting from 2010, the ESA will publish a list of classic and contemporary books which to this day have not been sufficiently translated into certain European languages. This annual list of 30 books recommended by 10 polyglot authors from different countries will be, over the years, a veritable translation archive.

b. A European Translation Fund

In the coming years the ESA wishes to complete the different national systems of translation funding through a properly European policy. The idea is to change the paradigm and no longer think about translation as a means of exporting a "national" literature in order to import "foreign" literature. On the contrary, the ESA wants to put in place translation resources on a European scale. At a moment where Europe is still trying to constitute itself - independently of political and economical aspects -  it is urgent and necessary to think of translation as an "interior" European reality and not only as a link between nation-languages. For this reason the ESA, helped by public and private institutions, wishes to champion the idea of a European Fund for cross-translation.