The winner of last year’s Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain (Picador UK and US), is to be translated into Arabic by Egypt’s Sefsafa Publishing House, thanks to a grant from the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund. This fund was established in 2015 to encourage international publishers to translate works by contemporary Scottish authors.
The grant will enable Stuart’s novel into Turkish, Serbian and Portuguese, as well as Arabic. With assistance from Creative Scotland, Publishing Scotland has spent £23,000 on 15 international publishers to translate Scottish writing.
Founded in 2009, Sefsafa is based in Dokki, Giza, on the west bank of the Nile, directly across from downtown Cairo. It publishes a diverse list, including Arabic fiction and non-fiction, and translation projects from English, French, German, Flemish, Slovenian, Slovak and Irish.
The Publishing Scotland Translation Fund seeks to support publishers based outside the UK who buy rights from Scottish and UK publishers and agents. It offers assistance with the cost of translation. The funding is received in the form of a grant, with priority given to the translation of contemporary literature, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, writing for children and graphic novels.
Stuart’s novel is about a boy growing up in 1980s Glasgow trying to support his mother as she struggles with alcohol addiction and poverty. It has been widely praised around the world.