Clayton McKee este directorul grupului Trafika Europe. Este specialist ??n literatur?? comparat??, cu o licen???? ??n francez?? ??i spaniol?? ??i arab?? ??i un masterat ??n literatur?? comparat?? la Penn State University. ??n prezent, este doctorand la Universitatea din California, Los Angeles. Scrie poezie ??i fic??iune. (Bianca Zbarcea)

Ce ??nseamn?? pentru tine Trafika Europe?

Pentru mine, ??nseamn?? pasiune, deschidere la minte, curiozitate ??i comunitate. Desigur, numele are un sens real, care a fost ales special pentru proiect. Trafika este un cuv??nt ceh ??i ??nseamn?? chio??c de ziare. Pe c??nd tr??ia ??n Europa, Andrew Singer a lucrat pentru o revist?? literar?? intitulat?? Trafika. Din p??cate, revista ??i-a ??ncetat activitatea. Andrew a preluat apoi acest concept ??i a ad??ugat Europa pentru a ne concentra pe continentul Europei ??? ??ntotdeauna cu accent pe ??ntreg continentul, mai degrab?? dec??t doar pe UE. ??ns?? pentru mine, proiectul ??nseamn?? cu adev??rat cele patru cuvinte men??ionate mai sus. Este pasiune pentru c?? to??i cei care fac parte din lumea literaturii sunt at??t de pasiona??i. Oamenii t??njesc s??-??i ??mp??rt????easc?? g??ndurile, creativitatea ??i munca ??i, deoarece jurnalul nostru este non-profit ??i gratuit, colaboratorii aplic?? doar din pasiune. Deschiderea la minte ??i curiozitatea vin la pachet pentru mine, deoarece se impulsioneaz?? reciproc. Acest proiect nu m?? determin?? doar pe mine s?? fiu deschis la minte ??i curios, ci ??i ??ncurajeaz?? ??i pe al??ii s?? fac?? acela??i lucru. Nu ??n ultimul r??nd, nu pot exprima ??n cuvinte c??t de minunat?? este comunitatea de creatori. Proiectul creeaz?? cu adev??rat o re??ea de oameni interesa??i s?? descopere ??i s?? ??mp??rt????easc??. Ce ??mi place cel mai mult s?? aflu atunci c??nd intervievez sau interac??ionez cu cineva este modul ??n care o anumit?? problem?? sau interviu i-a atins sufletul ??i l-a determinat s?? contacteze un autor/traduc??tor. De??i vrem s?? ??mbun??t????im implicarea ??n comunitate ca proiect, suntem ferici??i s?? vedem cum aceast?? ini??iativ?? are parte de o na??tere semiorganic??.

Cum ??i-a venit ideea de a acorda premii?

Visul meu este s?? am ??ntr-o zi fondurile necesare pentru a putea pl??ti fiecare colaborator al organiza??iei Trafika Europe. M?? str??duiesc s?? creez o echip?? pl??tit?? ??i pentru proiect, astfel ??nc??t s?? putem cre??te calitatea con??inutului ??i s?? sprijinim activ comunitatea creativ??. Din p??cate, deocamdat??, nu suntem la acel nivel financiar; cu toate acestea, ??n timp ce calculam bugetul anual, mi-am dat seama c?? aveam suficiente fonduri pentru a oferi un premiu ??n bani, pe l??ng?? plata site-ului nostru ??i abonamente la diverse programe. Astfel, acesta este primul nostru efort de a pl??ti colaboratorii ??ntr-un mod care s?? func??ioneze cu bugetul actual al proiectului. Exist?? o tax?? de aplicare, dar ace??ti bani vor fi direc??iona??i direct c??tre premiu ??i pentru continuarea proiectului. ??n plus, am lucrat cu o mul??ime de mari edituri, autori ??i traduc??tori. Avem chiar ??i un parteneriat cu Premiul Uniunii Europene pentru Literatur??. A??adar, m-am g??ndit c?? este timpul s?? ne promov??m numele ??i s?? ??ncerc??m s?? extindem proiectul.

C??t de greu a fost s?? organizezi totul?

Organizarea a fost, desigur, o pl??cere. Nu m?? ??n??elege??i gre??it, am muncit o gr??mad??! Din fericire, a fost u??or s?? organiz??m un juriu datorit?? comunit????ii noastre. ??n perioada ??n care ??ncercam s?? m?? ocup de premiu, intervievam ??i publicam o traducere a lui ??gi Bori, care s-a ??nt??mplat s?? fie unul dintre redactorii traducerilor din Los Angeles Review. M-am g??ndit c?? va fi perfect?? ca jurat ??i ea ??tia ??nc?? o persoan?? care putea fi interesat??. A vorbit cu colega ei de la LA Revie, Francesca Bell, care a acceptat ??i ea. Dup?? asta, au urmat o mul??ime de post??ri pe re??elele sociale, promov??ri, e-mailuri etc., care au st??rnit interesul. ??n prezent, organizez aplica??iile ??i le preg??tesc pentru juriu, a??a c?? ne apropiem de perioada de lectur??. Cred c?? dup?? ce perioada de lectur?? se termin?? ??i ??ncepem s?? dezbatem lucr??rile, ??ncepe ??i munca adev??rat??, c??ci va trebuie s?? organiz??m totul pentru a tip??ri acest num??r ??i a realiza interviuri cu participan??ii.

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What does Trafika Europe mean to you?

For me, Trafika Europe means passion, open-mindedness, curiosity, and community. Naturally, the name has an actual meaning that was chosen specifically for the project. Trafika is a Czech word for newsstand. Andrew Singer worked for a literary journal titled Trafika while he was in Europe, which unfortunately stopped publication. Andrew then took this concept and added Europe to make our focus the continent of Europe???always with an emphasis on the full continent rather than solely the EU. Truly, though, the project means those four words to me. It is passion because everyone engaged in the world of literature is so passionate. People yearn to share their thoughts, their creativity, and their work with others, and, since our journal is a non-profit and free, collaborators are coming purely out of passion. Open-mindedness and curiosity come together for me because they both play into each other. Not only does the project keep me open and curious, but it also encourages others to do the same. Finally, I cannot express enough how amazing the community of creatives has been. The project truly creates a network of people for sharing. My favorite thing to hear when I interview or interact with someone is how a specific issue or interview spoke to them in a certain way and led them to reach out to an author/translator. While we do want to get better about engaging with our community as a project, we are happy to see it arise semi-organically.

How did you come up with the idea of granting awards and how difficult was it to organize everything?

My dream is to one day have the funds to be able to pay every contributor and collaborator of Trafika Europe. I am striving to create a paid team for the project as well so that we can increase the quality of our content and actively support the creative community. Unfortunately, for the time being, we are not at that financial level; however, I realized while making a budget for the year that we had enough funds to offer a monetary prize while also paying for our website and various technology subscriptions. So, this is our first effort to pay contributors in a way that works for the project???s current budget. There is a submission fee for the prize submissions, but that money will be going directly to the prize and continuation of the project. Furthermore, we have worked with a lot of big publishing houses, authors, and translators. We even have a partnership with the European Union Prize for Literature. So, I thought it was time to get our name out there further and try to expand the project.

Organizing has been admittedly a pleasure. Don???t get me wrong, it???s been a ton of work! Luckily, it was easy to organize a judges??? panel thanks to our community. Around the time I was trying to organize a prize, I was interviewing and publishing a translation by ??gi Bori who happened to be one of the translation editors of the Los Angeles Review. I thought she would be perfect as a judge, and she knew of another person who was probably interested. She spoke with her colleague from the LA Review, Francesca Bell, who was also on board. After that, it has been a lot of social media posts, outreach, emails, etc., to spark interest. Currently, I am organizing the submissions and getting them ready for the judges, so we are coming down to the reading period. I think once the reading period is over and we begin meeting about the pieces, the real work will begin as we try to get everything organized to print this issue and conduct interviews with contributors.