More Turkey on the Shelf?

According to Turkey’s Today’s Zaman, a Nobel Prize, the European Union, and İstanbul named as a European Capital of Culture for 2010 are a few of the reasons why we might be seeing more Turkish works in translations. Of course, money helps: “…the project called The Introduction of Turkish Culture, Art and Literature (TEDA) has served as a turning point. As part of the project which is led by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, close to 600 publications have been translated into different languages since 2005, giving foreign readers the opportunity to get to know 150 Turkish authors. The number of books translated within the context of the project in the last four years is almost six times as many as the number of books translated in the history of Turkey…TEDA is a translation subvention project running in developed countries such as England, Germany and the US. Foreign publishers that want to translate Turkish works into their own language apply to TEDA; publishers who receive subsidies from the project can then pay for translation and copyright expenses. Publishers report the sale figures of translated books to TEDA every six months. Owing to the project, the works of many Turkish authors and poets are being read in foreign countries.”

Read more here.