On the occasion of Book Day, the IEB takes stock of the impact of publishing translations of works by Balearic authors with distribution outside the archipelago
During the year 2024, with a budget of 220. 220,000, the IEB supported the publication of more than 35 projects
The director of the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics (IEB) presented this morning at a press conference the assessment of the impact of the IEB’s aid around the call to support the external projection of the publication of Balearic literature, thought, comics and illustration, just before the celebration of Book Day 2025, on April 23rd.
One of the IEB’s calls for applications is a grant to support the promotion of publishing and the promotion of literature, thought, comics and illustration from the Islands with a total budget of 240,000 €. Three lines of subsidy are established within this call: support for the mobility of authors, publishing house managers, researchers and cultural agents to attend fairs, festivals, presentations and professional conferences outside the island of residence; support for publishing projects linked to the external projection of books, and support for activities to promote literature, thought, comics and illustration from the Balearic Islands.
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Specifically, within the line of support for publishing projects linked to the external projection of the book, with an amount of 220. 220,000, projects can be presented that focus on the publication of translations of works by authors born or resident in the Balearic Islands with distribution outside the Balearic Islands; the publication of original works by Balearic authors; the publication of translations into Catalan of universal works that are published by Balearic publishers, and the digitalisation of works by Balearic authors that form part of the literary heritage of our community.
In 2024, more than 35 projects for publishing, including multilingual versions of books, benefited from this line.
On the one hand, for the publication of works for distribution in Spanish-speaking countries, more than nineteen works benefited. On the other hand, more than sixteen other projects received publishing aid from the IEB in 2024 for the publication of works in European and international countries.
Of these first works for distribution in Spanish-speaking countries, a large number are illustration projects, six are from the world of comics, three are non-fiction and one is fiction. Of the group of projects to be distributed to European and international countries, nine are illustration, four are fiction and three are comics.
In addition, the event also highlighted the number of translations by authors from the Balearic Islands that have benefited from grants from the Ramon Llull Institute, an organisation in which the Government of the Balearic Islands participates in its 2024 calls for proposals; these calls are complementary to those offered by this institution and are financed by the Government of the Balearic Islands.
Last year, eighteen Balearic projects of illustrated works received IRL support to publish abroad; nine works of literature and thought from the Balearic Islands received IRL support to translate them into other languages and, finally, three Balearic projects received IRL support for their publishing production.
The director of the IEB, Llorenç Perelló, pointed out that ‘one of the fundamental axes of this institution is to promote the projection of Balearic literature abroad’. He added that ‘the support offered by our call for publishing aid is very important to support the publishing sector of the Balearic Islands; a sector of great quality which, unfortunately, receives little support from the state government’.