A visiting translator fellowship – the first of its kind – will be launched in Trinity next week.
This fellowship is a collaboration between the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, the Alliance Française, and the Embassy of France, and will involve bringing esteemed translators to Trinity, to translate works of Irish literature into French.
The translators will be brought to Dublin on a contract of translating a specific piece of work, and will work within the Trinity, in the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation. When the fellowship is completed, the translators will travel back to France to finalise their work. Upon the publication of this work, Trinity will welcome the fellows back for a launch party.
Mona De Pracontal, from Paris, is the first person to work under this fellowship. De Pracontal is a distinguished translator, receiving awards such as the Baudelaire Prize for Literary Translation in 2009 for her translation of Half of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In 2019, she received the ‘Priz de Traduction de la Fondation Irlandaise 2019’ for her translation of the Irish book Nothing On Earth by Conor O’Callaghan.
De Pracontal has further translated works from Hannah Tinti, Cynan Jones, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, Rick Riordan, Frank Baum, Melvin Burgess, Howard Normal, Kaye Gibbons, and Hanif Kureishi. She has also translated non-fiction works of William Burroughs and Gloria Steinem.
De Procantal will be translating Inch Levels, by Derry-based author Neil Hegarty. This novel was shortlisted for the Kerry Group novel of the year award in 2016.
Professor Michael Cronin, Director of the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, will launch the fellowship on Wednesday, February 5th. The launch will take place at Trinity and will be attended by the French Ambassador H.E. Stéphane Crouzat, writer of the novel in question Neil Hegarty, and other representatives from embassies and cultural centres.
The Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, part of the School of Languages, Literature, and Cultural Studies. Its aim is to “bring the best of Irish literature to the world, and the best of world literature to readers in Ireland”.
The Alliance Française is a branch of the Embassy of France, which has existed for almost 60 years. Its aim is to promote French culture in Dublin, as well as to provide a space for intercultural exchanges between Ireland and the cultures of the French-speaking world.
