NORLA's activities to promote the export of Norwegian literature

NORLA will be hosting our third Arabic translator seminar in the series on Monday, September 16th, following up Norway’s role as Guest of Honour at the Cairo International Book Fair in January. During the seminar, participants will discuss their experiences with translating from Norwegian to Arabic. Following this, two Egyptian publishers, Sherif Bakr from Al Arabi Publishing, and Mohamed El-Baaly from Sefsafa Publishing, will be talking about their work with translations for the Arabic-speaking world.

Eight international non-fiction editors will visit Norway September 17 – 20 to participate in NORLA’s fellowship program in Oslo and Stavanger. On Wednesday, September 18th, they will meet with non-fiction editors and authors in Oslo. On Thursday, September 19th, the group will travel to Stavanger to attend the literature festival Kapittel and to meet authors, as well as explore the city and enjoy a boat tour on Lysefjorden.

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Athens will be hosting a book trade meeting for Greek editors of children’s and young adult literature on Wednesday, September 18th. NORLA will participate digitally with a 30-minute introduction on Norwegian children’s and young adult literature, selected titles, and NORLA’s work.

The planning for Norway as Guest of Honour at the Leipziger Buchmesse is well underway. During the literature festival Kapittel in Stavanger from September 19th to 22nd, the German-Norwegian program series titled Auf dem Weg nach Leipzig (On the Way to Leipzig) will be presented. This is a festival within a festival, organized by Kapittel in collaboration with the Norwegian-German Willy Brandt Foundation, the Goethe-Institut, and NORLA.

The aim is to introduce German literature to Norwegian readers and foster discussions about literature and current societal issues in Norway and Germany/Switzerland/Austria through meetings between Norwegian and German authors. In the author conversations, German-speaking authors will meet their Norwegian colleagues, such as Judith Hermann / Monika Isakstuen, Christoph Ransmayr / Erik Fosnes Hansen, and Simon Strauss / Simon Stranger.

The complete program will be continuously updated here

From October 24-27, NORLA will participate in the Krakow Book Fair in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Warsaw. The book fair coincides with the Joseph Conrad Festival in Krakow. NORLA and the embassy will have a stand at the book fair, with various activities including a bookstore, book signings, Norwegian language courses, and more.

In addition, NORLA will be hosting a seminar for non-fiction publishers and Norwegian literary agents on Thursday, October 24, featuring the author Bjørn Berge and another author of non-fiction (TBC). Authors Kjersti Anfinnsen, Karl Ove Knausgård, Maja Lunde, and Lars Saabye Christensen have been invited by their Polish publishers to participate in the book fair and/or the Conrad Festival.

Please note that there are new application deadlines in 2024, with three deadlines in total, for Norwegian books in all genres:
1 February, 1 April and 1 November

Meeting of NORLA’s expert committee for non-fiction, for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 November.

From December 1-4, NORLA and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Mexico will once again be present with a stand at the Guadalajara Book Fair, the world’s largest Spanish-speaking book fair.
Norwegian literary agents are invited to take part. Author Marta Breen is also participating and will be meeting the public at the book fair.

Meeting of NORLA’s expert committee for fiction, for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 November.