Education and training

The ELV offers various forms of education and training to further the translation skills and professional development of literary translators into and from Dutch.

Individual support

In cooperation with Flanders Literature and the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the ELV facilitates individual support for literary translators who are new to the profession. They can apply to the ELV for a development grant or a mentorship.

Development grants

Translators who are new to the profession and have not yet signed a contract with a publisher may be eligible for a development grant, allowing them to work on the translation of a short story or literary text together with an experienced translator. Attention is also paid to the practical side of a career in translation. The ELV pays the mentor’s fees. There are two application rounds a year, with the closing dates for applications being 1 March and 1 October respectively.

More information (in Dutch)

Mentorships

Translators are eligible for a mentorship if they have a contract with a literary publisher to translate a literary text and are at the start of their translation career. An experienced translator will help them with the translation. The main aim of the mentorship is to enable the mentee to apply the knowledge that they have acquired in future assignments. The ELV pays the mentor’s fees. Translators can apply for a mentorship at any time. Applications will be processed as quickly as possible.

More information (in Dutch)

Courses and seminars

The Centre of Expertise for Literary Translation organises and facilitates courses and seminars to enhance the expertise of literary translators into and from Dutch.

Courses

The ELV organises courses for new and more experienced translators into and from Dutch and offers training for languages that are not covered by existing translation study programmes. ELV courses do not involve the acquisition of language: all participants should have sufficient knowledge of Dutch as the source language.

The ELV always looks for the most suitable form of learning for the course participants concerned. This may be an offline course, such as the Summer Course, an online course, or a combination of the two (blended learning). The range of languages on offer is decided annually in conjunction with our partners and associate partners. All courses are publicised through our website, newsletter and social media.

As well as its own courses, the ELV has been co-organising the annual ESLT Summer School, which provides further training for lecturers in translation, since 2017. The working language for this is English. Our partners within the European School of Literary Translation (ESLT) are the British Centre for Literary Translation, Fondazione San Pellegrino and the PETRA-E Network. The ESLT implements the PETRA-E Framework for the Education and Training of Literary Translators (www.petra-education.eu).

Seminars

The ELV regularly organises seminars in the Netherlands and Belgium on specific topics relating to literary translation. Future events are publicised through the website, newsletter and social media.