Positive Progress

I received the following press release not that long ago, and I thought it represented a positive step forward for translation.

Words without Borders announces a $44,000 grant from Amazon.com to fund translator and author costs.

New York City, New York, December 1, 2010—Words without Borders (WWB) announces a generous grant from Amazon.com underwriting the costs of publication for 2011.

Words without Borders is a nonprofit organization and monthly online magazine dedicated to the translation, publication, and promotion of literature in translation. Each month we publish eight to ten new pieces of literature in translation from around the globe. The grant will cover the author and translator fees for all twelve issues of Word without Borders: The Online Magazine of International Literature in 2011, including an upcoming issue on Pashto and Dari literature and works by winners of the Russian Debut Prize. Amazon.com’s grant provides significant and much-needed operating support to the organization and allows Words without Borders to raise its payments to authors and translators.

This marks the fourth grant from Amazon.com to Words without Borders. It is the largest grant they have awarded to any organization to date.

Alane Salierno Mason, WWB’s founder and president, stated, “Amazon.com’s ongoing support has been critical to our financial health. This most recent grant not only provides major support for the organization’s financial foundation, but allows us to do just a bit more for the authors and translators whose work forms the heart of Words without Borders.”

In addition to WWB, Amazon.com has awarded grants to a diverse range of not-for-profit author and publisher groups dedicated to fostering the creation, discussion and publication of new writing and new voices, including the Council for Literary Magazines & Presses, Milkweed Editions, Poets & Writers, WriteGirl, 826 Seattle, The Loft Literary Center, Voice of Witness, Seattle Arts and Lectures, The Moth, The Kenyon Review, Richard Hugo House, Artist Trust, Hedgebrook, Copper Canyon Press, Girls Write Now, Lambda Literary Foundation, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. A number of the recipients- such as Open Letter, Ledig House, Archipelago Books, the Best Translated Book Award, Pen American Center, and the Center for the Art of Translation- are, like Words Without Borders, committed to supporting the international exchange of literature and the work of translators and foreign authors.

Words without Borders is grateful for the continued partnership with Amazon.com and their ongoing work to support literature in translation.

Founded in 2003, Words without Borders is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that has translated over 1,200 pieces of literature and poetry representing 80 languages by writers from 111 countries. WWB has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, the Boston Globe, the Guardian (UK), Vanity Fair, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as in various foreign-language papers and numerous literary blogs. We were selected as a featured “pick” by Yahoo immediately after our launch issue and voted one of Time magazine’s “Fifty Coolest Websites” in July 2004.