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Arts Council England is to award almost £30,000 in National Lottery funds to fledgling translation publisher And Other Stories.
The start-up grant of £27,690 will provide funds for translators and marketing. And Other Stories registered as a not-for-private-profit company in January 2010, focusing on literature in translation, but has not yet released any titles.
Founder and publisher Stefan Tobler said: "I've translated a novella simply because I loved it, but you can't expect other translators to take months out of their working lives to do that.
"By providing funds for our development, the Arts Council has been a wonderful fairy godmother. If several hundred subscribers start to support us, their support coupled with the development funds from the Arts Council will enable us to bring some amazing books from around the world to people in the UK."
And Other Stories has been running reading groups, such as Spanish-language and Lithuanian, over the summer, hosted on literary social network site Goodreads. Feedback from the groups will help the publisher decide which books to translate and publish. Supporters of the publisher can also subscribe to receive its titles.
The Arts Council sum will be granted in three instalments over the next 15 months, as the publisher looks to develop. Tobler plans to release the first titles—as yet unconfirmed—in the second half of 2011.