Translation of Swedish drama for stage performance

In order to apply for this grant you must be the director or producer of a theatre or production company that will be responsible for the performance of the translated play.

This grant covers translation costs of Swedish original theatre plays into other languages. With Swedish original theatre play we mean drama written in Swedish or any of the national minority languages in Sweden. Furthermore, the work has to be originally published/performed in Sweden.

A condition for the grant is that the translation is done directly from Swedish or any of the national minority languages and not via any third language. Exceptions may be granted for languages where there are no professional translators directly from Swedish or the national minority languages. This requires a written approval from the rightsholder that clearly states which edition shall be used for the translation.

The sum you apply for should correspond to the fee you have agreed to in the signed translation contract with the translator. This full fee needs to be paid to the translator, regardless of the amount that the Swedish Arts Council has granted. The translator needs to confirm having received the full amount before a reimbursement of the grant can take place. Support for adaptation or production costs is not covered by this grant.

Applications are open all year round, but submitted applications are evaluated three times a year. Your application must be sent in before the translated play has been performed. The play cannot be performed before the results of the application have been sent out, so do remember to apply in time.

Please note that your application must be received by the Swedish Arts Council no later than 24.00 on the last application date. If your application is submitted after the deadline, it will be evaluated in the next application round. 

If an application is incomplete and the applicant does not complete it within the time communicated by the Swedish Arts Council, we cannot process it in the current application round.

Your application is submitted online, via our online-service. Only one work per application is accepted. You may submit more than one application per round. The application must include the following material: 

• a scanned copy of the signed contract between the theatre/production company filing the application and the rights holder 
• a scanned copy of the signed contract between the theatre/production company filing the application and the translator
• pdf/word file/ or e-book of the original work 
• the translator's list of his/her previous translations from Swedish

Copy of the application form

Please note that the form may be changed. The copy should not be posted.

Copy of the application form

All the applications received during an application period are evaluated at the same time by an external expert grant committee.The committee assesses the literary quality of each work, i.e. the narrative structure of the work, its linguistic and artistic expression, as well as the text’s ability to, regardless of genre, engage the reader. The Head of the Department for Literature and Libraries at the Swedish Arts Council decides on the final distribution of the grant approximately 8 weeks after each application deadline. The decision will be communicated to you, the translator and the rights holder by e-mail.

A list of allocated grants will be published on the Swedish Literature website. Decisions cannot be appealed.

The grant is meant to support translation of contemporary works, but support could also be given to classics. Priority will be given to introduction of the work of contemporary Swedish playwrights into languages where there are no or few previous translations of that author's work or other Swedish plays performed och published. 

Guidelines

Guidelines for grants for translation of Swedish literature and drama

General conditions

Terms and conditions for those who are awarded a grant from the Swedish Arts Council

General conditions

Subsidies granted will be disbursed by the Swedish Arts Council upon:

• receipt of a pdf of the finished translation, along with a pdf of the programme with the acknowledgement of the grant where it is clearly stated that subsidies granted are acknowledged with the following text, translated into the language in question: “The cost of this translation was defrayed by a subsidy from the Swedish Arts Council, gratefully acknowledged”. Adding the Swedish Arts Council logo is optional.
• receipt of a written confirmation from the translator that (s)he has received the full fee that was agreed on in the signed contract. Please use the following form for this confirmation and submit it to us, mentioning your case number, kulturradet@kulturradet.se

Translator confirmation form

If your application is approved, the granted sum is available for one year, so all the above mentioned requirements must be fulfilled during the year following the approval of the grant. If problems should arise, please contact the Swedish Arts Council immediately.