One year ago, in January 2009, the Flemish Translators House moved from Leuven to Antwerp to be managed by the FLF. The goal was to integrate the Translators House with the activities of the FLF's international team and to have more interaction with the translators. Moreover, Antwerp has an overload of cultural activities and sights to offer. Visiting translators are not only in need of a quiet place to work on their translation projects, they also want to be submerged in the local language and culture.
Quite successfully, the FLF started a campaign to attract more translators to Flanders. As a result, the occupancy rate increased from 45% to over 85% in twelve months' time.
A total of 22 translators of 16 different languages and nationalities stayed at the Antwerp Translators House in 2009. Amongst them were quite some Germans (6) and Central or Eastern Europeans (8). About ten translators have applied to stay at the Translators House again in 2010.
‘Our ambition is to achieve a maximum occupancy rate of 100% in 2010. Already 17 translators have registered. We furthermore want to expand the activities of the Translators House.‘, says Inès de Bien, the head of international affairs at the FLF who is in charge of the Translators House.
The stay of this year's first visitors is already coming to an end. Daniel Cunin and Gheorghe Nicolaescu worked at the Translators House for one month.
Daniel Cunin is a translation chameleon: he does not fear any literary genre. He has translated amongst others novels by Adriaan Van Dis and Annelies Verbeke, poetry by Paul Bogaert and Peter Holvoet-Hansen, and a graphic novel by Randall.C. He is the translator of most of Bart Moeyaert's oeuvre. His French translation of Stefan Brijs' ‘The Angel Maker' was recently published. At the 
moment, Cunin is finishing ‘De langverwachte' (The long awaited) by Abdelkader Benali and starting ‘Het recht op terugkeer' (The right to return) by Leon Dewinter.
Gheorghe Nicolaescu is the head of the department for Dutch and German language and literature at the University of Bukarest. He translated such classics as Louis Paul Boon, Harry Mulish and Hugo Claus, as well as recent novels by Annelies Verbeke and Connie Palmen. Nicolaescu currently works on a selection of theater plays by Flemish writers Arne Sierens, Jan Lauwers, Filip Vanluchene and Eric De Volder.
