Writers and translators often maintain that their real home is language. In whatever tongue they speak or create, wherever they live or travel, ultimately their only real home is language-both a rational and an irrational miracle, which helps them recreate reality: to give voice to, and to tell of, their own experience and that of the world through poetry, prose, drama and translation. The English author Virginia Woolf proposed that writers need few worldly goods in order to create-just money and a room of their own. This need is more keenly felt in today’s society, where a writer, like everyone else, is caught up in the nervous flow of daily life. It is, therefore, no wonder that creative centres for writers and translators have become so highly valued and well-loved, particularly in Europe. For a short while, you are away from your usual existence, from the everyday and life’s responsibilities, and can allow yourself the pleasure of being a full-time writer. You recreate reality and are together with colleagues: brothers and sisters in language. You feel calm in the knowledge that in this rational and pragmatic world there are many others who, like you, devote themselves to the difficult, beautiful and exclusive task that is working with language. The Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby, Gotland, Ledig House in America, Casa Pantrovà in Switzerland, the Writers’ and Translators’ House in Käsmu, Estonia, and many, many others are now joined by Ventspils Writers’ and Translators’ House in Latvia.
Here, on the vast world map, is another place where language lives, where experiences meet, where each writer tells the same ancient mystery-of life, death and love-in his or her own language. The historic former town hall, located on the square between the renewed city library and the Lutheran church, has been remodelled as a centre for writers and translators from around the world, providing an opportunity for them to meet and work.
The writers’ studies have modern facilities but have not lost a touch of history and are ready to offer a warm haven to the Ventspils House language-travellers. The inner garden and sauna create a feeling that the process of writing has some connection to faith and divine revelation, accompanied by a succumbing to some sinful joys...
Here, everything is in one place-solitude and conversation, work and respite, daily bread and wine. When weary of work, residents can wander round Ventspils-a well-maintained coastal city, where, in each house, street, yard and square, the past is just as important as the future. Having walked through a green park, the language-traveller suddenly finds himself on the beach. He is free to go wherever his eye takes him, in one direction or the other-kilometres of beautiful, white, sandy coastline stretch into the far distance: just the sky and sea on one side, a strip of green forest on the other, and the walker, who treads the sand and opens his mind to the creative moment.
Who knows, perhaps this century’s most beautiful literary stories of life and love will be created right here, at the Ventspils house of language. Let it happen!
Nora Ikstena
riters and translators often maintain that their real home is language. In whatever tongue they speak or create, wherever they live or travel, ultimately their only real home is language-both a rational and an irrational miracle, which helps them recreate reality: to give voice to, and to tell of, their own experience and that of the world through poetry, prose, drama and translation. The English author Virginia Woolf proposed that writers need few worldly goods in order to create-just money and a room of their own. This need is more keenly felt in today’s society, where a writer, like everyone else, is caught up in the nervous flow of daily life. It is, therefore, no wonder that creative centres for writers and translators have become so highly valued and well-loved, particularly in Europe. For a short while, you are away from your usual existence, from the everyday and life’s responsibilities, and can allow yourself the pleasure of being a full-time writer. You recreate reality and are together with colleagues: brothers and sisters in language. You feel calm in the knowledge that in this rational and pragmatic world there are many others who, like you, devote themselves to the difficult, beautiful and exclusive task that is working with language.
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The Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby, Gotland, Ledig House in America, Casa Pantrovà in Switzerland, the Writers’ and Translators’ House in Käsmu, Estonia, and many, many others are now joined by Ventspils Writers’ and Translators’ House in Latvia. Here, on the vast world map, is another place where language lives, where experiences meet, where each writer tells the same ancient mystery-of life, death and love-in his or her own language. The historic former town hall, located on the square between the renewed city library and the Lutheran church, has been remodelled as a centre for writers and translators from around the world, providing an opportunity for them to meet and work.
The writers’ studies have modern facilities but have not lost a touch of history and are ready to offer a warm haven to the Ventspils House language-travellers. The inner garden and sauna create a feeling that the process of writing has some connection to faith and divine revelation, accompanied by a succumbing to some sinful joys...
Here, everything is in one place-solitude and conversation, work and respite, daily bread and wine.
When weary of work, residents can wander round Ventspils-a well-maintained coastal city, where, in each house, street, yard and square, the past is just as important as the future. Having walked through a green park, the language-traveller suddenly finds himself on the beach. He is free to go wherever his eye takes him, in one direction or the other-kilometres of beautiful, white, sandy coastline stretch into the far distance: just the sky and sea on one side, a strip of green forest on the other, and the walker, who treads the sand and opens his mind to the creative moment.
Who knows, perhaps this century’s most beautiful literary stories of life and love will be created right here, at the Ventspils house of language. Let it happen!
Nora Ikstena
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Director of the Ventspils House
Andra
Konste
andra.konste
ventspilshouse.lv
+371 29207353, +371 63623595
International Project Coordinator of the Ventspils House
Rita Dementjeva
ritalatvianliterature.lv
International Project Coordinator of the Ventspils House
Ieva Balode
ieva.balodeventspilshouse.lv
+371
26449426
Accountant of the Ventspils House
Iveta
Līberga
iveta.libergaventspilshouse.lv
+371
26176424
Bank details:
SIA "Starptautiskā Rakstnieku
un
tulkotāju māja"
Registration No 41203024801
State Treasury
Account
LV68TREL9220920000000
Swedbank
Account
LV67HABA0551010754947
International Project Coordinator of the Ventspils House
Inga Bodnarjuka-Mrazauskas
inga.bodnarjuka
gmail.com
Mob.phone: +371 25936493
Assistant manager of the Ventspils House
Zeltīte Freiberga
zeltite.freibergaventspilshouse.lv
+371
26589712, +371 63623596
Bank details:
SIA "Starptautiskā Rakstnieku
un
tulkotāju māja"
Reģistrācijas Nr. 41203024801
Swedbank
Konta Nr.
LV68TREL9220920000000
Swedbank
Konta Nr.
LV67HABA0551010754947
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OPEN CALL FOR LITERARY TRANSLATION RESIDENCIES IN LATVIA, VENTSPILS 2022 – 2023 Translation in Motion Programme April 2022 – April 2023 International Writers’ and Translators’ House (Furthermore Ventspils house) for the second time invites applications by literary translators working or intending to work from Latvian language into the languages of the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia). Application deadline: March 30 2022 Translation in Motion is a programme that aims to enrich and intensify the flow of translated literature in contemporary Europe, and specifically between the Western Balkans countries and the EU member states. Recognizing that literary translators are influential and driven ambassadors of cultural dialogue, this programme will provide international mobility and professional development. Ventspils House offers time (8 weeks) in 2022 for one professional literary translator for focused creative work on a literary translation project as well as opportunity to gain and improve knowledge of Latvian language, to carry out research on Latvian literature, and to raise the visibility by networking with the local literary sector and presenting the work to local audiences. Eligibility The residency is offered by the Ventspils House. We welcome proposals from literary translators working already or intending to work from Latvian Language into the languages of the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia). Eligible translators should be citizens of any EU country or any country of the Western Balkans. General conditions During the residency, translator is expected to work intensively on the literary translation project of Latvian literature with which he/she applied for the programme, to take part in events or activities of the Ventspils House, and to network with colleagues and with other residents. Ventspils House offers two months (8 weeks) residency, free accommodation in the residency centre, a travel grant (330 EUR), a monthly fellowship (400 EUR) to cover living expenses and paid intensive Latvian language course. Application & Selection Applications for residencies taking place between April 2022 and April 2023 should be submitted by 30th March 2022. Candidates are invited to send a letter of interest outlining their reasons for applying for the residency, a description of their literary translation project and a CV. All information in English language must be sent to the e-mail ventspilshouse@ventspilshouse.lv. Full details of the project, application process, residency premises and activities can be found on www.ventspilshouse.lv. Contact person for all questions is Ieva Balode, e-mail ieva.balode@ventspilhouse.lv. The Steering Committee of the Translation in Motion consortium will make the selection, with results announced by 15th April 2022. In the light of COVID-19, all residency dates are provisional and will depend on the lifting of restrictions on international travel and local lockdowns. Ventspils House ensures that COVID-secure measures are in place, according to the government guidelines. About Translation in Motion Translation in Motion is a programme that aims to enrich and intensify the flow of translated literature in contemporary Europe and specifically between the Western Balkans countries and the EU member states. Recognizing that literary translators are influential and driven ambassadors of cultural dialogue, this programme provides international mobility and professional development. The Translation in Motion project (1/2/21-31/8/23) is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. https://www.re-cit.org/translation-in-motion-news/
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Irina Danewska (Ukraine) Irina Danewska ( 04.03.1981) - ukrainian writer, author of 6 historical novels. I believe that, the future belongs to those, who knows the history. The best books are dictated by the sea and the circle of like-minded people, so I go to Ventspils. Lina Melnyk (Ukraine) Paulina Pukytė (Lithuania) Paulina Pukytė (photo by Daiva Kaireviciute) is an artist, writer, curator and cultural commentator born in Vilnius and currently based in London. She writes experimental literature, poetry and plays, as well as critical and satirical essays on cultural issues. She has published four inter-genre fiction books: Jų papročiai (Their Habits, 2005), Netikras zuikis (Fake Rabbit, 2008), Bedalis ir labdarys (A Loser And A Do-gooder, 2014); lubinas ir seradėlė (Lupin and Serradella, 2021), as well as poetry and other literary texts in periodicals and online publications. A theatre production of Bedalis ir labdarys premiered at the State Small Theatre of Vilnius in 2015. Extracts from A Loser And A Do-gooder were included in the anthology of Best European Fiction 2016, published by Dalkey Archive Press. In her work Paulina Pukytė explores human condition and deconstructs socio-ideological myths and socio-cultural clichés and stereotypes. She searches for meaning in absurdity and for absurdity in meaning. She is drawn to the marginal, even banal, rehabilitating what is seemingly unimportant and “inferior” but terribly human. She writes using various appropriation and re/upcycling strategies, and employs metatextuality and intertextuality. Her literary works have been described as “word sculptures constructed from found language objects” (Laima Kreivytė), and “dense dialogs of absurdist poetics, […] balancing on the very tip of the language nerve, […] that ought to make you laugh, but make you think instead.” (Dainora Kaniavienė)
This month's residents
The translator speaks Ukrainian, English, Italian, Russian, Bulgarian and Latvian. In 2018 she completed a four-month course of Latvian language (level A, 120 hours) which took place in the Latvian language agency in Riga and later successfully passed the State Latvian exam. She is interested in Latvian history and culture, as well as cultural connections between Latvia and Ukraine. With the support of the Embassy of Latvia in Ukraine Lyna have been covering Latvian cultural events in Ukrainian press for a couple of years now.
The full version of her Latvian-Ukrainian translation of Jānis Akuraters’ «Burning Island» was published in the «Vinnytskiy Kray» literary and art magazine (2016-2017), First four parts of the novel “Soviet Milk” (“Mates piens”) by Nora Ikstena were published in «Literary Ukraine» (No44 (5725) 11/09/2017 issue).
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