Works by Turkish writers come to life abroad. Within the last 10 years, Turkish literature has become a literature more in demand worldwide, widely translated into and read in foreign languages. There is no doubt that TEDA has greatly contributed in this. So what is TEDA? TEDA, a literature project carried out under the leadership of Turkey, Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism General Directorate for Libraries and Publications, is described as Turkish literature’s expansion to the world. Bilingual “literary translation workshops” are organized by partnership of -International Organizations (Ministries, Translation Funds, Translation Centers) and by collaboration of ÇEV-BİR, Translator’s Association and Boğaziçi University.
Literary translation journey took start with Translators of Turkish Literature Cunda Workshop (TEÇCA) held in 2006 in Turkish-English, and German and French languages were included in the workshops in 2011. In 2012, positive feedback from international translation and literary circles led to including Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese languages, and a total of seven workshops were organized. In 2013, 10 literary translation workshops were held in various languages including Italian and Polish as well as workshops on children and juvenile literature. TEDA currently continues its operations with 10 translation workshops.
Nermin Mollaoğlu (Kalem Literature Agency)
“Turkish literature has been translated into numerous languages and now receives significant awards also in the countries where the language is spoken. For instance, the Serbian translation of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar upported by TEDA received the best translation award in that country. That publisher wants to publish more Turkish books. And encourages and supports other publishers as well because they think books can be translated well from Turkish. This means translation support or a good book do not suffice. TEDA reveals that the translator is also involved. This way writer, translator and publisher come to fore.”
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