On Friday, September 27, the national team of the CELA project met at the TRANSLATORIUM Literary and Translation Festival in Khmelnytskyi.

We were glad to see each other in person and talk with the literary consultant Oksana Ziobro and one of three writers from the Ukrainian team—Anastasia Levkova.

We were also very glad to welcome translators from teams of other countries: Dragana Vasilevič (Serbia), Claudia Betiol (Italy), Magdalena Ukrainec (Poland), who would translate from Ukrainian within this project. The opportunity to attend discussions, lectures, readings and book presentations, that took place within the festival, was a pleasant addition to our meeting.

We are grateful to the VII Literary and Translation Festival TRANSLATORIUM for the invitation and hospitality. This year, the relations between translation and memory were explored at the festival. And how today the transformations of these notions and the points of intersection between them shape cultural processes and continuity.

Let us remind you that in 2024 the team of the International Book Arsenal Festival joined the CELA European project for the first time. CELA: Connecting Emerging Literary Artists is networking of emerging literary artists that involves young writers and translators from 11 European countries in cooperation through mentoring, masterclasses and meetings.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.

On September 4, the CELA project’s third edition opening event was held online through Zoom with the CELA partners’ staff, mentors, literary consultants, and invited guest speaker Oksana Zabuzhko.

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international talent development project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the EU. It is a 4-year project that connects emerging translators from 11 European countries (10 languages) with emerging writers through masterclasses, sample translations, mentorship, presentations and live meetings. Book Arsenal became a participant of the CELA project for the first time in 2024.

The Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko was invited to present a lecture during CELA opening event on the status quo of European literature, the relevance of translation and it’s impact in current times. 

Some quotes and questions from the Oksana Zabuzhko’s lecture:

Literature is a kind of thermometer that shows the change in the temperature long before the disease starts. Literature already shows signs that there are some issues with our values. <…> Now its up to you, the future of Europe is in your hands. You are the blood vessels of Europe; you make Europe whole, and you keep it whole. Without this wholeness, we end up with replacing values and knowledge. Keeping it alive is your translator’s mission! Good luck!

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is networking of emerging literary artists, an international talent development project co-funded by the EU programme Creative Europe. CELA involves young writers and translators from 11 European countries in cooperation through mentoring, masterclasses and meetings. The project aims at providing literary artists, representatives of small languages, with equal conditions to build an international career, to reach an international audience and to develop professional skills. The project is designed for four years and is taking place for the third time.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.

The International Book Arsenal Festival, in cooperation with Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) and with the financial support of the European Union, has selected three writers for the project. They are Eugenia Kuznetsova, Myroslav Laiuk and Anastasiia Levkova.

Within the first cycle of the project, a prose work of each selected Ukrainian author will be translated into 9 European languages ​​by members of other national teams from:

• Spain;
• Italy;
• the Czech Republic;
• Poland;
• the Netherlands;
• Serbia;
• Slovenia;
• Romania;
• Bulgaria.

Excerpts from these translations will also be published on the CELA website and other European literary platforms.

Within the project, Eugenia Kuznetsova, Anastasiia Levkova and Myroslav Laiuk will participate in two international masterclasses on professional growth, will receive mentoring support concerning international promotion and cases of professional communication (artist bio, portfolio, photo, etc.). In addition, they will take part in networking meetings with writers and translators of the CELA network during visits to literary festivals and team meetings of the project participating countries.

Rostyslav Semkiv, consultant of the CELA project, Docent the Department of Literature at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, director of the Smoloskyp Publishing House, author of books about writing, spoke about the selection of authors and the value of the project:

Recently, prose has changed considerably. It has become more skillful, more experimental. On the other hand, not least due to the development of writing courses, people have begun working harder on texts. More high quality prose appears. I think the situation is no worse than in the 1920s or 1960s. Are there more masterpieces? I do not know, at least a lot of strong books come out.

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international project of cooperation and development of literary talents, promotion and distribution of literary works, involving 12 literary organizations from 11 countries of the world. And this is already the third iteration of CELA. In 2024, the team of the International Book Arsenal Festival joined this large-scale European project for the first time. It is designed for four years, more details can be found here.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.