Translation catalogue for publishers launched

Eight works of fiction in six Indian languages have been curated into a new catalogue for publishers from across the world to pick up for translation and publication.

‘The Global Rights Catalogue’ launched at third edition of the Jaipur BookMark (JBM), a publishing segment running parallel to the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, here seeks to expand readership of Indian writing in regional languages.

The aim, according to the organisers, is to showcase the best of India’s regional literature and help facilitate sale and exchange of publishing rights both between regional languages and internationally.

Regional writing often did not receive the literary credit it deserved due to an overwhelming dearth in the availability of translations for such work, they said.

“We realised it was important to bring in one of the major things that makes for the writing in India, which is language writing. But, the problem is that there are not adequate good translations of writers from different languages which hampers the reach of these writers,” Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts, said after the launch.

For its ongoing edition, the JBM has tied up with Daily Hunt, a distributor of Indian language e-books.

Three books originally published in Hindi and one each in Bangla, Kannada, Assamese, Rajasthani and Gujarati are included in the global catalogue.