NORLA's Selected Titles
Every spring and autumn, NORLA chooses its Selected Titles; a slice of this year’s books from fiction, non-fiction and literature for children and young adults. The selection is normally presented in connection with book fairs in which NORLA participates, as well as on our website and in our newsletters. The target groups are international book trade contacts, mainly publishers and translators. During the Corona pandemic, the seleced titles were presented in our digital book trade meetings and webinars, as well as in the form of videos on our YouTube channel.
Starting in the autumn of 2022, we made short interviews with the authors, instead of videos.
The selection of titles is made in dialogue with Norwegian publishers and literary agents, with whom we maintain regular contact regarding current and upcoming publications. NORLA represents Norwegian literature as a whole, and the selected titles should collectively present a good impression of Norwegian contemporary literature. International sales potential and literary quality form the basis for the selection. Titles that are prioritised must all be considered to have a possibility of being sold abroad, but the committee also allows for an authorship to be built internationally over a longer perspective.
At NORLA, we read current books to look for international appeal and whether they are of the right quality to stand out abroad. The questions we try to answer are whether a book will fit into the book markets of other countries? Does the book satisfy the literary requirements within its genre? Non-fiction titles are considered more thematically: Is the topic relevant abroad? Is the content international enough and is the theme universal? Or is the book unique, meaning that there are hardly any books of its kind abroad? Is the book of a high academic level?
The Selected Titles are also given exposure on our web portal Books from Norway, where all rightsholders have the opportunity to publish information in English about the Norwegian books they represent: https://booksfromnorway.com/
In addition to NORLA’s Selected Titles, we also create overviews of a selection of books within different genres and themes, “highlights”. These are books that have often already been sold abroad and have therefore shown that they have a market in other countries.
Altogether, NORLA’s selections over a given year should contribute to presenting overseas industry figures with a good picture of the quality and breadth within the genres of non-fiction, fiction and literature for children and young adults. The committee aims to create interest and to function as an effective guide to Norwegian literature for the target groups, which are primarily foreign publishers and translators.
NORLA also has a searchable grant scheme for sample translations of Norwegian literature into English for agents and publishers, where NORLA’s focus titles are prioritised. The scheme normally grants between NOK 3000-5000 per title.
Read more
See the selection
NORLA’s Selected Titles are listed here
NORLA’s highlights within the different genres are listed here
Interviews with the authors and illustrators of NORLA’s Selected Titles here