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... Veronica Stigger Turquie Sarah Chiche Eleni Sikelianos DIRE LA VILLE / 2014 Patrick DEVILLE Jean-Noël Pancrazi Extrait César AIRA Mark Henshaw Pays-Bas Hoda BARAKAT Kao Seiha François Garde Luis Sepulveda Antoine de Baecque Björn Larsson (Suède) Norman Manea Pepetela Mauricio Electorat René Quérillacq Extrait Jens S. Sørensen Marcelino Truong Ernesto Quiñonez Rodrigo Soto Julie Wolkenstein Mustapha Kebir Ammi Hawad (vidéo) Tash Aw László Krasznahorkai Caroline Lamarche Matthieu Mégevand Mayra Santos Febres Inde Louis-Philippe Dalembert Ogawa Yôko Ognjen Spahic Bruno Patino José Luís Peixoto Fujii Ritsoko Serge Mestre Bernard BOESCHENSTEIN Costa Rica Elisabeth Roudinesco Sophie Bassouls Colm Tóibín Portugal Tahar Ben Jelloun Rafael Castillo Zapata Kaouther Adimi Jabbar Yassin Hussin (vidéo) Étrange matière Heino KIIK Jacinta Escudos Egypte Serbie Yoko Tawada Algérie Julia Deck Ahmed Abo Khnegar Emmanuelle Pireyre De l’imposture en littérature Extrait Rodrigo SOTO Nicaragua Jan Erik Vold Yves Arcaix meet n°1 Trieste / Buenos Aires Frédéric-Yves Jeannet Thomas Thøfner De l’autre côté du vin Anouchka Vasak