
Edinburgh Castle, February 9. Image – iStockphoto: Stephen Bridger
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Fifteen Titles Newly Granted Translation Funding
Our Publishing Perspectives readers will remember November’s call for translation grant proposals from the Publishing Scotland program.The program funds support for publishers based outside the United Kingdom with the payment of translation fees to translate Scottish writers. Funding is offered in the form of a grant and it’s for translation costs only.
This morning’s (February 17) list of newly allocated grants, valued at a total of £23,000 (US$32,120), features, surely, Scotland’s current favorite son, the Scottish-American Douglas Stuart in four new translations of his Booker-winning Shuggie Bain (Pan Macmillan/Picador), this time for Turkey, Serbia, Portugal, and Egypt, as well as writings by Ali Smith, Denise Mina, Liz Lochhead, and more.
New Translation Grants from Publishing Scotland
- Argument Verlag GmbH, Hamburg to translate The Less Dead by Denise Mina
- Can Publishing, Istanbul to translate Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
- Cicero, Gyldendal, Denmark to translate Thunder Bay by Douglas Skelton
- Editions Hashtag, Montreal to translate the Nasty Women collection by various authors
- Double Nickels, Bologna to translate For the Good Times by David Keenan
- Edizioni Kolibris, Ferrara, Italy to translate Farm by the Shore by Thomas A.Clark
- Guggolz Verlag, Berlin to translate Cloud Howe by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
- IPC Media, Serbia to translate Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
- Magvető Publishing, Budapest to translate Winter by Ali Smith
- New Human Publisher, Turkey to translate Of Dogs and Men by John Barrington
- Nie Wiem, Ancona, Italy to translate the poetry collection A Choosing by Liz Lochhead
- PNV Publikacii DOOEL Skopje, Macedonia to translate poetry collection The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
- Penguin Random House, Lisbon will translate Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
- Sefsafa Culture & Publishing, Egypt will translate Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
- ŠTRIK DOO, Serbia to translate Summer by Ali Smith.

Dina Mina’s ‘Gods and Animals’ in German, a translation supported by Publishing Scotland
In operation for more than five years, the funding is made possible with the support of Creative Scotland and has seen the work of Scottish authors translated and published in dozens of languages.
One of the things the Publishing Scotland team looks for in applications, the team in Glasgow says, is “a real passion for the title in question as well as clear marketing and financial plans, appropriate contracts with publishers and translators, and an apt choice for [a publisher’s] lists.”
Functioning as the trade body for the Scottish industry, Publishing Scotland works to enhance the awareness of “the variety and strength of Scottish authors internationally.”
Another round of funding is anticipated this summer, and details, when available, will appear here.

On Edinburgh’s Royal Mile at St. Giles’ Cathedral, February 7. Image – iStockphoto: Stephen Bridger
More from Publishing Perspectives on Scotland is here, more from us on translation is here.
And more from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.