EKEMEL gets a new director
Helene Zervas brings an insider’s knowledge to her new post as director of the European Translation Center (EKEMEL). A professional translator herself, she has been part of EKEMEL since its inception, initially on the teaching staff and later as an administrator. This June she was appointed director, succeeding Natividad Galvez. Kathimerini English Edition asked Zervas about what visions and projects she has in mind for the institution. «I’d like everyone to talk about EKEMEL,» she said. The first step toward achieving that is an advertising campaign – with posters in the press and bookmarks – to drum up interest and attention. And there will be more emphasis on joint projects with European partners, such as an upcoming meeting with RECIT (Network of European Literary Translation Centers), and offering a variety of translation seminars in addition to the usual diploma courses. Joint projects All the literary translation centers in the RECIT network offer residencies for translators and organize events that bring writers and translators together. EKEMEL has participated in European programs with other RECIT centers for some years and became a member itself last year, joining centers from Sweden, the UK, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Switzerland and The Netherlands. The shared view of the members is that they can most effectively promote translation and literature by banding together. This May, when the 12 members met at Balatonfured in Hungary, they elected a council of four people with experience in EU programs. Those four – Peter Bergsma (Netherlands), Francoise Cartano (France), Francoise Wuilmart (Belgium) and Zervas – have formed a working group to conceive and coordinate a common project. Their next meeting is in late September at Lefkes on Paros, where EKEMEL runs the House of Literature, and it will culminate in «Translating Europe,» a major event in Athens to celebrate International Translation Day. Popular workshops Apart from the core classes – translating into Greek from English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and from Greek to English – EKEMEL has also run successful one-off shorter courses from other languages, such as Turkish and Arabic. Zervas plans to run more of these 10-week courses, which do not lead to diplomas and which attract a wider range of participants. «We’ll have ‘Translating Opera’ with Maria Laina, and ‘Translating Art and the Fine Arts’ with Andreas Pappas, for example,» she said. The diploma courses continue, naturally, with an even greater emphasis on quality. Recognition What do Greek translators need most? Recognition, Zervas believes, and EKEMEL will do its best to support them. She cited the Literary Translation Awards instituted this year by EKEMEL with the British Council, Goethe Institute, Cervantes Institute and Italian Cultural Institute in Athens as one step in the right direction, and the new Marios Ploritis prize for theater translation, founded by the Dionysus Cultural Center of Thrace and EKEMEL, as another. Zervas, with her professional skills and insider’s knowledge, is sure to play a significant part too. Helene Zervas Helene Zervas was born in Lyon, where she studied at the Institute of Political Science. For the past 20 years, she has lived in Athens, where she started working for the Literary Translation Center (CTL) of the French Institute. From 2005-2007, she was director of studies at the European Translation Center (EKEMEL) where she has taught since its foundation. In June 2007, she was appointed director of EKEMEL. Zervas translates Greek literature into French. In 2000, she won the Greek Society of Literary Translators’ award for her translation of «My Mother’s Sin,» by Giorgos Vizyinos.
