In the context of Europe, it is not too far-fetched to view the Dutch language as a local language as well as one that has its own global reach. It is important for the standing of Dutch-language culture in an enlarged Europe that its writers are read in the other European countries. Not only the English-speaking countries of the Republic of Ireland and the UK benefit from literary translation into English: it has the added advantage of making Dutch writers more widely available to publishing houses in any language. All the indications are that literary translation is gaining in importance in the European context, and that literary translators are becoming better organised, as the recent PETRA recommendations demonstrate (Buekenhout and Vonck, 2012). This is one of the reasons why translating literature forms part of this textbook.