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... Stéphanie Balmir José Manuel Fajardo Alfonsina Storni Gabriela Trujillo FERENC BARNAS Philippe Diaz Viktor Pelevine Magali García Ramis Rencontre avec des écrivains portugais Jenny Bornholdt Sonallah Ibrahim Yann Potin Huilo Ruales Hualca Mempo Giardinelli Asie Nicaragua Claribel Alegría Gabriela Alemán David Machado Agnès Járfás Bernardo Toro HAN DONG Simonetta Greggio Philippe Bouquet Rencontre entre poètes français et graveurs polonais Extrait Alberto NESSI Extrait María NEGRONI Caroline LAMARCHE Michael Stauffer meet n° 8 Pékin / Istanbul Mamuka Lekiachvili Rosita COPIOLI (vidéo) Marcin Świetlicki Yanick Lahens François Turner Damiela Eltit Carlos Cortés Lucie Angheben Peter Laugesen (vidéo) 1991 / Julio RICCI Julia Deck Abdallah Zrika Antônio Dutra - vidéo - Fernando Colla Colombie Patrick BONNET Diego Zuñiga El Salvador Rania Samara Juan José SAER (vidéo) Horacio Castellanos Moya Ioànna Bourazopoùlou Marie Darrieussecq Rencontre avec des écrivains autrichiens Alain Robbe-Grillet Brésil Renzo Rosso John Banville Hubert Klimko (vidéo) Rasha al-Atrash Arnaldo Calveyra Ioan Grosan Jürgen Ritte Josh Ashbery William Ospina Touareg Rafaël Chirbes Extrait Eva RUDYŠAROVÁ-MIŠIKOVÁ Terre trois fois maudite Extrait Josef WINKLER