Daesan Foundation accepting applications for translation of Korean literary works

The Daesan Foundation is accepting applications for the 2024 Korean Literature Translation, Research, and Publishing Support program.

Applicants for this year’s translation grants will be accepted until 3 p.m. on May 31 through the foundation’s official website. Successful applicants will be announced in August.

Applicants can select from Daesan Literary Award-winning works that have not been translated into the target language, or any other literary work that has yet to be translated.

Last year's Daesan Literary Awards winners are the three-volume novel "Oh, Jejudo" by Hyun Ki-young, Kim Ki-taek's poetry collection "A Knife Called a Sickle" and the play "None Elected" by Yi Yang-gu.

The foundation funded the translation of 18 Korean literary works in 2023.

Selected translators will be given up to 13 million won for poetry and 16 million won for prose (novels, plays or children’s literature). The grant may vary depending on the language and the length of the selected piece. Publication expenses of the completed translation will also be partially supported.

English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and northern European languages fall into category A. For Chinese, Russian, Turkish and other European languages which fall under category B, the grant for each project is set at 70 percent of the amount given to category A languages. The grant for all other languages is set at 50 percent of the amount given to those languages in category B.

Translators who have full linguistic capacity in Korean and the target language are eligible to apply, regardless of nationality. Applications will be accepted for joint translations as well.

The foundation also supports research and publication of Korean literary works.

Overseas Korean literature professors, researchers and students are eligible to apply for the research grant. Overseas publishers who wish to publish Korean literature may apply for publication funding.

More information on the grant is available on The Daesan Foundation's official website.