The Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) has announced receiving 2,506 applications for the 13th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) Translation Grant, including 1,215 applications submitted as part of the annual Professional Programme that took place prior to the 42nd edition of SIBF last year.

The SBA noted that the number of approved titles for the 13th edition of the grant saw an increase of 15.2%, with 303 books approved compared to 263 in the previous year. The approved titles included 119 books to be translated from Arabic into other international languages, and 184 books that were translated from world languages into Arabic.

The SIBF Translation Grant that comes under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, aims to propel the fields of Arabic and international translation by providing publishers with cash grants of $1,500 to $4,000 to cover the entire or partial costs of translating their publications into other languages.

Commenting on the increase of approved titles for this year’s grant, HE Ahmed Al Ameri, CEO of SBA said, “The SIBF Translation Grant embodies SBA’s commitment to the vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) and aims to further the impact of translation on enhancing dialogue among world cultures, broadening the scope of intellectual and creative Arabic content, and boosting its contribution to human civilization, honouring publishers, authors and thinkers through translating their works.”

The approved titles that were translated from Arabic into other languages include 33 books into Turkish, 19 into English, and 14 into Persian. The Fund also approved the translation of 10 books into Malayalam, 8 into Macedonian, 6 into Portuguese and the same into Albanian, compared to 5 into French, and 4 each into Greek and Romanian, The number of books translated into Italian was 3, while 2 books each were translated into Serbian, Ukrainian and Tamil, and finally 1 book into German.

The approved titles that were translated from international languages into Arabic comprised 71 books from English, 40 from Turkish, 13 from Indonesian, 11 from Spanish, and 10 from French. The Fund also approved the translation of 7 books from Italian, 5 from Russian and the same from Serbian, compared to 4 books from Ukrainian, and 3 each from Armenian, Japanese and Slovak, and two books from Hungarian. The translation Fund approved the translation of one book each from German, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Persian and Romanian.