Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there has been a great demand in Norway for Ukrainian language skills as well as knowledge about the country itself. One way of gaining insight into Ukraine’s history, culture and mentality is through fiction. Many Norwegian publishers want to publish fiction by Ukrainian authors, however there is currently a lack of qualified translators of Ukrainian to Norwegian.
NORLA and the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators will meet this demand by facilitating a collaboration between translators whose native languages are Norwegian and Ukrainian, i.e., between the Association of Literary Translators’ members and NORLA’s network of translators.
1. An open half-day seminar about Ukrainian language and literature, and co-translation. April 13, 2023, 9-13, at Litteraturhuset in Oslo.
The seminar will be live streamed here
More details available here (in Norwegian)
2. A Ukrainian-Norwegian translator’s workshop, June 24, 2023
3. A Ukraine issue of the periodical Mellom, which is devoted to the art of translation, containing the Ukrainian texts translated within the framework of the project, published in October 2023.
The first part of the project will therefore be the half-day seminar on April 13. There will be speakers from Norway and Ukraine. Some of the participants will take part via video link from Ukraine.
The project is initiated by the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators and NORLA, and is being carried out in close collaboration with Mellom and the Ukrainian Association in Norway.
NORLA is looking forward to gathering ten translators of Norwegian literature in Lillehammer, as we do annually for the Norwegian Festival of Literature / Sigrid Undset Days on June 3-6.
This year the festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and the theme of the program is Sápmi.
The festival runs from June 2 through June 8.
Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Bologna Children´s Book Fair in 2026. NORLA invites foreign publishers and editors of children and YA literature to apply for our fellowship program, which this year will take place in Oslo from June 10 -13. The fellowship will focus on Norwegian children & YA literature. On the program will be visits to Norwegian publishing houses, presentations by Norwegian authors, meetings with literary agents, as well as an extensive social program in Oslo.
NORLA administrates the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ scheme for travel grants for authors and lecturers who will visit institutions of higher learning abroad where instruction is given in the Norwegian language.