Last year´s grant-winners available at bookshops in 2022

Novels, essays, poetry, comics, literature for children and young adults... Basque literature continued to open new frontiers last year, with authors producing and publishing a wide range of works. The Etxepare Basque Institute also provided support for several translations. Five of these works have already been published, some of them in more than one language. Etxepare awarded a total of 64,000 euros grants for 21 books.

Promoting translation is one of the Institute´s main lines of work; annual grants are awarded, among others, for the translation of works by Basque authors into foreign languages.

In 2021, 20 books written originally in Basque and one in Spanish received grants. Five of the translations were into Spanish, two into English, and the rest into other languages, including Armenian, Greek, Italian, Danish and German. All of them will be published in 2022.

The anthology of poetry, ´Muga´, is among the translations already on the bookshelves. The Catalan translation was published jointly by Pruna Llibres and Edicions del Buc. Poet In ‘Muga’, Manel Rodríguez-Castelló brings together poems by Felipe Juaristi, Juan Ramon Makuso, Pello Otxoteko and Aritz Gorrotxategi.

´Miñan´ a book by Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus, is also available in Catalan, translated by Pau Joan Hernàndez. It is published under the title ´Germanet´ by Blackie Books, which also published the Spanish version ´Hermanito´, translated by Ander Izagirre.

The translation of a comic book was also awarded a grant. Idoia Noble brings Asisko Urmeneta´s ‘Aztihitza: Xahoren Biografikoa’ into Spanish, ´Viaje a la rebelión´. The French translation, ´Voyage vers la rébellion´ was translated by Antton Harignordoquy and published by Pol-len edicions. The Catalan version, ´Viatge a la rebellió´, can also be found in the publisher´s catalogue.

The essay ´La historia de Euskal Herria a través de sus mujeres´ by Cira Crespo and Elena Ciordia, published by Txalaparta, has also been translated into Spanish.

The last name on the list is Bernardo Atxaga, who adds the Serbian version of ‘Etxeak eta hilobiak´ (Houses and graves), ´Kuće i grobnice´, translated by Biljana Isalović, to his list of translated books. It´s published by Buka&Bes.