The leading objective of this 3-year translation project is to SPREAD THE WORDS and the awareness of extraordinary European literature, and in doing so reach not just existing, but also new audience among readers of different age groups, as well as professionals in the book industry (librarians, teachers, booksellers). We believe this is one of the essential tasks of modern publishing, where books are in most cases unnoticed after publication.
The project will therefore ensure a continuous production of high-quality literary works, a restructuring of existent selling, promotional and marketing channels, and technological upgrades that will improve the user experience and enable easier access to books for our readers.

In order to reach new audience also outside Slovenia, an important, pioneering part of the project is dedicated to translation of Slovenian authors into other European languages; initially within the very strong field of children’s and young adult fiction. This will play an essential long-term role in the promotion of these (and other Slovenian) titles and authors throughout the duration of the project, as well as in the years 2021 and 2022, when Slovenia is the guest of honour in Bologna and Frankfurt respectively.

The first year of the project brings a set of 10 carefully chosen literary works from European authors, where we have taken into account narratives of often overlooked literary voices, genres and nations. The selected books explore the question of personal freedom and the identity of those who are often denied a voice of their own, dealing with topics, such as slavery, social integration, prejudice, intolerance, casualties of war, human dignity and corrupt social reality; by focusing on narrations, which have been purposefully forgotten, they help to correct the image of society, dictated by political history.

List of books (1st year of EU support):
– Janne Teller: Alt. Translation from Danish into Slovene by Silvana Orel Kos.
– Véronique Olmi: Bakhita. Translation from French into Slovene by Janina Kos.
– Javier Cercas: El Impostor. Translation from Spanish into Slovene by Sara Virk.
– Carlos Ruiz Zafon: El Laberinto de los Espiritus. Translation from Spanish into Slovene by Veronika Rot.
– Feri Lainšček: Prvotnost. Translation from Slovene into English by Erica Johnson Debeljak.
– Tove Jansson: Sent i November. Translation from Swedish into Slovene by Nada Grošelj.
– Benedict Wells: Vom Ende der Einsamkeit*. Translation from German into Slovene by Neža Božič.
– Wislawa Szymborska: Wiersze Wybrane. Translation from Polish into Slovene by Jana Unuk.
– Lila Prap: Zmaji?! Translation from Slovene into German by Sebastian Walcher.
– Mathias Enard: Zone. Translation from French into Slovene by Suzana Koncut.
* EUPL Award.