NORLA's activities during the Norwegian Literature Festival in Lillehammer

International publisher’s seminar
Each year NORLA and The Norwegian Publishers Association invite foreign publishers to a seminar on Norwegian literature at the Norwegian Literature Festival. The seminar was this year advertised as a fellowship, and there was a great deal of interest in participating. This year’s theme is adult fiction. On the seminar’s first day publishers will meet Norwegian colleagues in Oslo. The following day they will go around visiting some of the central Norwegian publishers before taking the train to Lillehammer where, in addition to the culture program, they will see presentations by a group of current Norwegian fiction writers. The seminar is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Translator Seminar
NORLA has been holding translator seminars at the literature festival in Lillehammer for 24 years, and this year’s seminar will be dedicated to adult fiction, where we have invited translators to English, Spanish and Korean.
The translators will meet Bår Stenvik, one of the authors selected to participate in spring’s New Voices program, which is organised by NORLA. All the translators will work on translating an excerpt from the novel The Information, and discuss various challenges in the text.
In addition to participating in the literature festival program, the translators will, along with a group of international publishers, watch presentations from several current Norwegian fiction writers. We look forward to a seminar that will hopefully be useful in the translators’ future work!

Press visitors
During the Norwegian Festival of Literature, NORLA will host a press visit for a group of 13 German journalists. Our guests will get to experience both Oslo and Lillehammer, and they will be introduced to a great number of authors.

Booksellers
Ten booksellers from Germany and Switzerland are also invited to this year’s festival in Lillehammer to meet Norwegian authors as well as Norwegian bookseller colleagues, and to become better acquainted with Norway.

Visit the festival’s website.

Did you know that in 2017, the Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer was named one of the best literature festivals in the world by Penguin Random House The Writers’ Academy? Read more.

And in 2017, Lillehammer was also named a creative city of literature in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Upcoming activities

November 14-November 16

Shanghai, China

Norwegian Participation at the Shanghai Children’s Book Fair

NORLA is taking part in the Shanghai Children’s Book Fair with a stand designed for meetings and professional networking. The two illustrators/authors Øyvind Torseter and Marianne Gretteberg Engedal (Skinkeape) will participate in the fair’s professional program and panel discussions. Both also serve on the jury for the Norwegian illustration exhibition at Bologna 2026.
In addition, several Norwegian publishers/agents will take part.

The initiative is carried out in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Consulate in Shanghai.

December 3-December 5

Rome, Italy

Networking Event and Launch of the Guest of Honour Program during the Rome Book Fair Più libri più liberi

The book fair Più libri più liberii is dedicated to small and medium-sized publishers, and NORLA is looking forward to participating for the second time – focusing on Norway’s Guest of Honour initiative at Bologna 2026 and on Norwegian children’s literature in general. And just like last year, we are hosting a networking event and gearing up for Bologna 2026 by launching the Guest of Honour concept and program. Also, Norwegian agents will take part in the fair’s fellowship and/or be present in the rights centre. The program is organized in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Rome.

In the lead-up to the book fair, we are organizing a full-day seminar for Italian translators and Norwegian language students from universities in Italy. The seminar will take place at Casa delle Traduzioni, and participants will have the opportunity to meet author and illustrator Malin Falch. The sessions will be led by established Italian translators of Norwegian literature.