Translating into and from Dutch: FAQs

Policy organisations

  • Centre of Expertise for Literary Translation

    See our homepage.
  • The Taalunie

    The Taalunie develops and promotes policy on Dutch in the Netherlands, Flanders and Suriname, and champions the Dutch language around the world. The Taalunie stimulates an international translation policy and the exchange of international translation expertise.
  • Literatuur Vlaanderen/Flanders Literature

    Literatuur Vlaanderen is an autonomous government institution that aims to facilitate a widely accessible literary landscape and to ensure better visibility for literature from Flanders at home and abroad. Foreign publishers that wish to publish Flemish literature or to apply for a grant can contact it for further information.
  • Nederlands Letterenfonds/Dutch Foundation for Literature

    The Dutch Foundation For Literature has the task of supporting writers and translators, and of promoting Dutch literature abroad. It invests in the quality and diversity of literature through grants for writers, translators, publishers and festivals, and contributes to the production and distribution of Dutch and Frisian literature at home and abroad. Foreign publishers that wish to publish Dutch literature or to apply for a grant can contact it for further information.

Educators

  • Utrecht University (Master’s in Literary Translation)

    Utrecht University, one of the ELV’s partner universities, offers an 18-month Master’s in Literary Translation (Translation Studies). This is an academic Master’s devoted entirely to literary translation. Students focus on aspects of literary translation as well as on modern and contemporary literature. They do this through specific translation modules as well as through training courses with professional translators and an intensive course on literary translation. The latter is taught in conjunction with KU Leuven, the ELV’s other partner university.
  • KU Leuven (Master’s in Translation)

    KU Leuven, the ELV’s other partner university, offers a Master’s in Translation on its Antwerp campus. As well as attending practical translation workshops, students study translation modules that help them reflect on translation practice and prepare them, in terms of methodology, for their Master’s project. Within this Master’s, there is the option to choose a literary track. The programme can be extended with a semester at Utrecht University.
  • Vertalersvakschool in Amsterdam and Antwerp

    The Vertalersvakschool trains students for the role of literary translator. The curriculum is practical in nature. It explores all aspects of literary translation: prose, poetry, essays and young people’s literature. The two-year programme consists of a foundation year and a year in which students specialise in specific areas.
  • For an overview of translation study programmes into and from Dutch, see this page in our Knowledge Bank (in Dutch).

Interest groups

  • Dutch Authors’ Guild

    The Dutch Authors’ Guild is the Dutch professional organisation for anyone who makes a living from writing. It strives to achieve a decent income for writers and translators, provides professional support and gives individual contract and other advice. There are Literary Translation and Book Translation chapters specifically for translators.
  • Flemish Writers’ Association

    The Flemish Writers’ Association (VAV) is the interest group of and for Flemish authors. It represents authors of prose, poetry, plays, scripts, children’s and young people’s literature, literary non-fiction and comic strips as well as illustrators and literary translators. The VAV both supports and informs authors individually and represents and defends Flemish authors collectively.
  • For an overview of funds and associations, see this page in our Knowledge Bank (in Dutch).

In the Translations Database (in Dutch) of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, you will find a large number of translations of literature from the Netherlands and Flanders which was originally written in Dutch and Frisian. Among other things, you can search by author, title, translator and original publisher and then filter your search results further. The database contains more than 22,000 titles.

You can also search via Worldcat. Search for a Dutch-speaking author by name and select the language of your choice.

You can search in the Dutch central catalogue via PiCarta on Worldcat. Here you will find publications that have been published in the Netherlands, on the Netherlands or in the Dutch language. Search for an international author and select ‘Dutch’ under the ‘language’ filter.

The international departments of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and Flanders Literature have websites in English that are aimed at international publishers and provide information on interesting new titles in Dutch. See Dutch Foundation for Literature and Flanders Literature. From time to time, the Dutch Foundation for Literature publishes brochures with new titles in different genres. The Flanders Literature website offers a selection of interesting books and authors.

See also this overview (in Dutch) in the Knowledge Bank, which provides a selection of websites, paper media and other channels that will help you stay up to date with developments in the field of Dutch literature.