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Organization and History of FATA The Finnish American Translators Association (FATA) was formed for the purpose of promoting and facilitating the translation of fiction and non-fiction from Finnish into English and vice-versa. FATA is a non-profit organization without pecuniary profit to any officer, director, or member. It is governed by a Board of Directors (who are also its Officers), consisting of the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Immediate Past Chair. (Current FATA officers.)
Fata Chairs: 1989-1991 Richard Impola,1991-1993 Helmi Kortes-Erkkilä, 1993-1997 Douglas Robinson, 1997-1999 Viola Jarvenpa Brown, 1999-2001 Kathleen Ogood Dana, 2001-2003 Miriam Leino Eldridge, 2003- Margareta Martin.
The FATA Organizational Meeting was held at FinnFest 1989 in Seattle. The Annual Meetings of the Membership are typically held in connection with FinnFests (an annual festival of Finnish-Americans held in communities that have a large enough population of Finnish descent to run the Festival).
The FATA membership includes translators who are primarily interested in translating fiction, while others make a career of translating general and technical materials. (Click on "How to Join FATA" for information on becoming a member.) FATA has awarded one Honorary membership in recognition of outstanding achievement in furthering the purposes of this Association to Eino Friberg, a translator of The Kalevala.
Becoming a "professional translator" requires more than a thorough knowledge of two (or more) languages; it requires a good general education, excellent writing skills, complete fluency in the source and target languages, and a deep insight into the cultural mores and customs, perhaps also dialects and slang of Finland and the U.S., as well as familiarity with the business practices and etiquette, if translating for businesses. A synopsis of reports on FATA activities at the 10th Anniversary Meeting in 1999 illustrates FATA's efforts to "promote and facilitate" its members' efforts:
Professionalism
FATA has served well those who are trying to make a living with translation work. The first effort was to establish a competency test, called "accreditation," in 1993. Fortunately, the first test, in Thousand Oaks CA, was sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of Education and a counterpart organization in Finland, Suomen kääntäjien ja tulkkien liitto. They sent their representative Simo Merne to conduct and judge the exam, both from and into Finnish. The procedures he followed were exactly the same as those required by the American Translators Association. After a lot of hard work on the part of FATA members Anja Miller and Douglas Robinson, the result was that the ATA subsequently accepted the FATA test and then took over its permanent administration. (Today the ATA still administers the Finnish to English test.)Another benefit that FATA has offered professional non-fiction translators has been a referral service, through which at least some have received assignments. (Click on "Members" for a list of available translators.)
Literary Activities
Since the beginning, FATA has published three collections of member translations (FATA Annual I, II, and III) and a number of individual works. Finlandia Foundation has provided invaluable financial support for FATA's publication efforts. FATA members have available to them an ISBN prefix, a series of numbers which gets their publications listed in the Bowker index, Books in Print. (For a list of books published with a FATA prefix number click on "List of Translations".)Interestingly enough, Stockmann's Academic Book Store in Helsinki is the best single customer for our books. The majority are sold through a network of Scandinavian gift shops and at such events as FinnFest USA. Most buyers are Finnish-Americans. An energetic marketing campaign is being planned for FATA translators' books.
FATA has participated in literary gatherings such as conferences on Finnish literature in North America cosponsored by the University of Turku. A member's translation has been used to provide electronic data for a linguistic research project at the University of Jyväskylä. Two of its titles have been assigned reading in courses at a number of universities. It has provided information to publishers seeking translators, and a bibliography of its members' translations has proved useful to both translators and students of English literature. In the archives of the University of Minnesota Immigration History Research Center are unpublished manuscript translations of a number of Finnish works available to researchers.
The Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, holds one box of materials pertaining to the Finnish American Translators Association. It occupies 1 linear foot of shelf space. The collection consists of organizational correspondence, meeting minutes, copies of translations, etc. The IHRC also has all of the FATA Newsletter issues to date starting with No. 3, Vol. 10 (1998).
Copyright © 2002 FATA
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