Depuis trente ans, la Maison des Écrivains Étrangers et des Traducteurs de Saint-Nazaire accueille en résidence des écrivains étrangers et des traducteurs du monde entier. Elle leur alloue une bourse et met à leur disposition un grand appartement au dixième étage du Building, au-dessus du port et des Chantiers navals.

Elle organise chaque année des rencontres littéraires internationales "meeting" et remet trois prix littéraires : le Prix Laure-Bataillon de la meilleure œuvre de fiction traduite en français dans l’année, le Prix Laure-Bataillon classique et le Prix de la Jeune Littérature latino-américaine.

Chaque année, elle publie la revue littéraire internationale meet et plusieurs livres bilingues.

Residencies
The "Meet" welcomes one writer or translator at a time for four to eight weeks. The resident is allocated a weekly grant and accommodated in a large two-bedroom flat in the "Building", an emblematic high-rise overlooking the docks and the shipyards of Saint Nazaire Harbour, on the Loire River estuary. At the end of his/her stay, the resident is given the opportunity to have one of his works and its French translation published in the Meet's collection "Les Bilingues".

The writers and translators who wish to apply must send a biographical as well as a bibliographical note. Every application is considered by The Meet's literary council, a body of writers, translators and critics.

Saint Nazaire is a middle-size town located in the south of Brittany, on the Loire River estuary. It's only two and a half hours away from Paris by high-speed train. The nearest airport is Nantes Atlantique.

Literary prizes
The Meet organizes regular meetings with writers and translators and awards three literary prizes. The prix Laure-Bataillon rewards both the writer of a fictional work and his or her translator The prix Laure-Bataillon classique rewards the translator of a classical work. The prix de la jeune litérature latino-américaine - is awarded every other year, each time in a different South American country. It aims at honouring and publishing a young Latino writer selected by a jury of writers in his own country.

Every year the Meet asks about twenty writers from different countries to contribute a few pages on a literary topic. Their texts are then translated into French and published in a bilingual edition.

SELECTION A LIRE... 1990 / Juan Carlos MONDRAGON Bessa Myftiu Rafael Menjival Ochoa Extrait du recueil L’histoire ou la géographie Pacôme Thiellement Loire & Ocean Christian Thorel Extraits du recueil Les bonheurs de Babel Yang Lian 1994 / HAWAD Japon Percival Everett Dominique Nédellec Paolo BOZZI Hans Magnus ENZENSBERGER Extrait Nikolaï KANTCHEV Veijo Meiri Alain Borer Angola Bosnie-Herzégovine Lars Bo KWAK Hyo-hwan L’histoire ou la géographie Laure BATAILLON VLADISLAV OTROCHENKO Grégoire Polet Extrait Orlando Sierra HERNANDEZ Extrait Luis GOYTISOLO Chhouk Roath Argentine meet n°10 Mexico / Sarajevo Phan Hon Nhien Tchéquie Veronica Stigger Charlotte Mutsaers Extrait DUO DUO Gary Snyder Mahasweta Devi Rafael Castillo Zapata Jean-Baptiste Phou Ces Canards qui volaient contre le vent Wojciech Nowicki Mamuka Lekiachvili Keith Baker Diego Zuñiga Extrait revue meet n°13 Doris Kareva Alexis DJAKELI Extrait du recueil L’invention du livre Marie Hoogue Italie Rick Bass Ioànna Bourazopoùlou Proche et Moyen Orient Emmanuel Varlet Alain Vaillant Extrait Eduardo HALFON László Krasznahorkai Alexandru Vlad César Ramiro VASCONEZ Ilarie Voronca Extrait Milo DE ANGELIS Russie Extrait Rosita COPIOLI Marcello Fois Jean-Paul Goux Milomir Kovacevic Bernardo Toro Rune Christiansen Grânâz Moussavi