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 Bernard Hœpffner et le Prix de la Jeune Littérature latino-américaine.

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... Pierre Lartigue Nahum Montt Alberto Salcedo Ramos Enrico Dagnino Liliane Hasson Khun Srun Miguel Torres Ecrire le paysage Boris Pahor Bernard Pautrat Michel Volkovitch Equateur Angola Rencontre avec des écrivains australiens Jacinta Escudos Jørgen Sonne Gerald Martin François GAUDRY John O’Brien Ernesto Cardenal Extrait Jens S. Sørensen Lettre d’un corps étranger Douna Loup Jean-Luc Coatalem Abbas Beydoun Extrait John BURNSIDE Andreï Baldine Isabelle GUGNON Piedad Bonnett Alexandre Toptchian Anne Sennhauser Nuala Ní Dhomhnail Patrick Houdin Thierry Clermont Extrait Leopold FEDERMAIR Mario Vargas Llosa Yves Arcaix Leonardo Valencia Extrait Andjelko VULETIC Michèle Métail Noémie Cingöz Egypte Yann Fauchois Alexis Lussier Françoise Garnier Lídia Jorge Derek Alton WALCOTT Lina Meruane Edgardo Cozarinsky Le programme Hans Magnus ENZENSBERGER Juanjo Rodríguez Santamaría Hugo CLAUS Marko Vešović Somalie Tahar Ben Jelloun Arun Joshi Jean-Raymond Fanlo Laure BATAILLON Rafaël Chirbes Bruno Zeni Belgique Louis-Philippe Dalembert Roberto FERRUCCI Cuba Julie Wolkenstein Elvio Guagnini Juana Salabert Elsa Osorio Pour Genet Jaime Abello