CELA
CELA 2024-2027

CELA: Connecting Emerging Literary Artists

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. CELA aims to offer literary artists from small language markets in Europe a level playing field to establish an international career, reach an international audience and develop their professional skills.

Book Arsenal became a participant of the CELA project for the first time in 2024.

CELA project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

About

The CELA project is a training program for translators and a joint international experience with colleagues, also translators, from 11 European participating countries. One of the important components of this extensive process is the support from mentors in the professional development throughout the whole duration of the project. Each of the translators of the Ukrainian team will be accompanied by a mentor-translator in the chosen language direction.

CELA offers emerging writers, translators, literary professionals, and literary organisations a two-year trajectory of training, tools and network with the aim of facilitating an international career and building a combined professional practice.

Countries of Teams

The Book Arsenal team is participating in the third iteration of the CELA program: from September 2024 to June 2027. Together with teams from:

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

The opportunities that will be available to the project participants:

  • paid assignments on the translation of 6 sample (prose) texts from emerging authors into Ukrainian;
  • publication of these translations on the CELA website and other literary platforms across Europe;
  • 4 international online masterclasses on the topics relevant to professional growth;
  • mentorship program: participants will work with an established translator in the same language direction and with a literary consultant;
  • development of a professional tool set for communication, including a photography and artist bio;
  • 2 live meetings in Kyiv with the Ukrainian team of the project;
  • 2 work weeks within the project. In Turin (Italy) and in Brussels (Belgium);
  • 2 visits to a literary festival in the country of your target language;
  • paid and mentored pitch session for (at least) one of your authors;
  • connection to an international network, communication and discussions with more than 300 European writers and translators.

Participants of CELA Program

We sincerely welcome 10 emerging translators, who have passed the competitive selection, to the project team:

  • Translation from Spanish into Ukrainian — Oleksandra Laktionova.
  • Translation from Italian — Olena Roman.
  • Translation from Czech — Olha-Anastasiia Futoran.
  • Translation from Polish — Iuliia Stakhivska.
  • Translation from Dutch — Olga Bondarenko, Larysa Dobra.
  • Translation from Serbian — Máximo André Martynenko Shchehlov.
  • Translation from Slovenian — Yuliia Stankevych.
  • Translation from Romanian — Onujec Ionela-Paulina.
  • Translation from Bulgarian — Khrystyna Vengryniuk.

Mentors of the CELA project (2024-2027) in the Ukrainian team

Halyna Hrabovska
Halyna Hrabovska
was born in Lviv. She made her debut as a translator from Spanish in 2002 in the magazine The Courier of Kryvbas with the translation of Julio Cortázar’s short story The Droolings of the Devil. She has translated works by Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Horacio Quiroga, Mario Vargas Llosa, Isabel Allende and others.
Mariana Prokopovych
Mariana Prokopovych
is a translator from Italian and English into Ukrainian. She has translated three novels by Umberto Eco, as well as works by Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Cesare Pavese, Primo Levi, James Joyce and others. She lives and works in Lviv.
Tetiana Okopna
Tetiana Okopna
is a lecturer, translator from Czech, organizer of cultural events. She has translated into Ukrainian novels by Jáchym Topol, Petr Šabach, Jaroslav Rudiš, as well as some essays by Václav Havel. Since 2023 she has been working as a freelance translator, cooperating with the Book World book fair in Prague.
Nataliia Tkachyk
Nataliia Tkachyk
is a translator from Polish, poet, literary editor of the Nova Polshcha portal. Two-time scholarship holder of the Gaude Polonia Program (2017, 2024). She has translated, in particular, Tadeusz Olszański’s memoirs Once in Stanisławów and Karolina Lanckorońska’s War Memoirs, Tomasz Grzywaczewski’s reportage book The Borders of Dreams.
Iryna Koval
Iryna Koval
was born in Kyiv and has been living in the Netherlands since 2000. Since 2016 she has been successfully engaged in literary translation from Dutch and English. Among her translations there are the most popular Dutch children’s series Dummie the Mummy by Tosca Menten, Alfie the Werewolf by Paul van Loon and The Gorgels by Jochem Myjer.
Maria Hoșciuc
Maria Hoșciuc
Among her translations from Ukrainian into Romanian there are: Serhiy Zhadan’s Voroshylovhrad, The Orphanage, Anarchy in the UKR, Depeche Mode, Yurii Andrukhovych’s Recreations, The First Month of the War, Olia Hrebennyk’s Fairy Tales for Children, Yelena Yemchuk’s Malanka.
Mariana Klymets
Mariana Klymets
a lecturer and translator, Candidate of Philology. She teaches Croatian and the Slovenian language and literature at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, translates from Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian. She researches speculative fiction in Croatian literature.
Alla Tatarenko
Alla Tatarenko
translator, lecturer, literary scholar, literary critic. Doctor of Philology, professor of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Author of more than 90 translations from Serbian and Croatian. She also translates Ukrainian literature into Croatian and Serbian.