NORLA's activities to promote the export of Norwegian literature
Holiday hours at NORLA
At NORLA we will close for the Christmas holiday Friday afternoon, December 21.
The office will reopen on Wednesday, January 2.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Literature Go Global to New York
From January 14-18th, the Literature Go Global group and seven Norwegian literary agencies will be in New York City as part of the competence program for Literature Go Global, where they will participate in an extensive program, along with US agents, scouts, publishers, bookstores and other industry figures, for a unique insight into the US book market.
Literature Go Global is a collaboration between the Ministry of Culture, Innovation Norway and NORLA. The New York program is organised in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office.
Read more:
About the Literature Go Global-program here.
About Frankfurt Book Fair New York Inc. here.
Application deadline: Author and lecturer visits to institutions of higher learning abroad
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.
Read more here.
Fellowship for publishers to the Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer, May 2019
We have the pleasure of inviting international publishers, editors, sub-agents and scouts to apply for fellowship to the Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer, May 2019.
The fellowship program is arranged by NORLA in collaboration with the Norwegian Publishers’ Association, and is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Read more
NORLA to meet Nordic colleagues in Helsinki, Finland
Representatives from NORLA’s staff will be attending a seminar with our Nordic colleagues, January 16-18.
The employees at the Nordic literary offices meet annually, and this year the meeting will take place in Helsinki, Finland.
We look forward to exchanging experiences and future plans with our colleagues!
The Nordic literary offices all administer The Nordic Council of Ministers’ funding scheme for the translation of literature and drama from one Nordic language to another. Read more about the scheme here.
Norwegian writers and NORLA to the Jaipur Literature Festival, India
Once again, NORLA will be participating in the Jaipur Literature Festival!
This is the world’s largest free literature festival, with an overwhelming number of writers, participants and audiences from India and the rest of the world. The Nordic countries and Norway are well represented this year, with several Nordic authors taking part. From Norway, there will be Maja Lunde, who will talk both about her adult books and about writing for children. Hanne Ørstavik will participate in a panel of Nordic authors, along with Henriette Rostrup, Laura Lindstedt and Einar Karasson, who will be interviewed by Margit Walsø.
Touring exhibition of illustration to open Norway’s Guest of Honour year
Georg Grosz meets Mulysses at Slush Mountain
Modern illustration from Norway
2019 is Norway’s year as Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse, and the first event in this Guest of Honour year will be the touring exhibition "Georg Grosz meets Mulysses on Slush Mountain. Modern illustration from Norway.” The exhibition will open at Felleshuset, at the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin, on January 23rd.
Between Tradition and Experiment: Contemporary Norwegian Children's Literature Event Conversation
Welcome to an evening dedicated to contemporary Norwegian children’s literature at the Nordische Botschaften / Felleshus at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Berlin!
23. January. 2019 — 19:00.
The event on Facebook.
The Raven Rings Cosplay Competition - Win trip to Manga-Comic-Con at the book fair in Leipzig! Entry deadline February 1st.
NB: For participants in Norway only.
In 2019, Norway will be the Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse. This means that Norway, under the direction of NORLA, will be present at numerous events in Germany throughout 2019.
One of these events will be the Leipzig Book Fair on March 21-24th, which along with its Manga-Comic-Con, is a great forum for cosplay. Siri Pettersen’s second book in the Raven Rings series is due to be published in German translation, and to mark this NORLA would like to have someone from Norway appear as a cosplayer from the Raven Rings trilogy in Leipzig.
Read more (in Norwegian) about the competition here.
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction
Read more about the translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction here.
Foreign publishers may also apply for production subsidies for the publication of Norwegian non-fiction containing a large number of illustrations or with exceptionally demanding technical production requirements.
Read more about the scheme here.
Nordic Children's Book Conference in Stavanger
At the Nordic Children’s Book Conference, NBBK, in Stavanger, NORLA presents the event “Borderless Women’s Rights”, Wednesday 6 February at 14:30.
Marta Breen and Jenny Jordahl have published the non-fiction cartoon Women in Battle (2018). Foreign rights to the book have been sold to 21 countries. But in the United States, Jordahl had to draw clothes over naked nipples, and in Russia the book is only allowed for the over 18’s.
What kind of limitations meet Nordic literature abroad, and where to draw the line – quite literally – for censorship?
Startup for Spring's New Voices
The five authors participating in spring’s New Voices program, will receive a small introduction to international rights work and NORLA’s activities, plus an intensive course in presentation technique by translator and actor Erik Skuggevik.
Read more about the authors here.
And read more about the New Voices program here.
Focus on Norway during the Berlinale
Norway is the focus country at this year’s Berlinale, and Nils Petter Moland’s film adaptation of Per Petterson’s novel Out Stealing Horses will be shown as part of the main program.
The Norwegian Film Institute has set up it’s own house “Norway House” where a range of activities will take place.
Nor is literature forgotten:
On Monday February 11th. at 15.00-17.30, the pitch seminar “Books at Berlinale” will be held at the House of Representatives, where Oslo Literary Agency will pitch Simon Stranger’s novel Keep Saying Their Names.
The same day, at 10.00-12.00, a separate pitch seminar will be held at Norway House, where Norwegian literature agents, and German agents and publishers, will meet German and Norwegian film producers to present selected titles.
Application deadline: NORLA's Translators hotel spring 2019
February 1 is the application deadline for translators of Norwegian literature regarding stays at NORLA’s Translators hotel spring 2019 (weeks 19-20, i.e. as of Monday May 6th through Sunday May 19th).
Please note that the offer is only available for translators who translate directly from Norwegian.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have contributed towards the scheme.
Read more (in Norwegian) here.
Rights Salon for Children's Literature, New York
The Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office and Publishing Perspectives are, for the second time, organising a Rights Salon for Children’s Literature in New York. Hege Langrusten from NORLA will be taking part to help expand the contact network, particularly within children’s books.
Read more about the event here.
Application deadline: Sample translation of Norwegian literature
Publishers, agents and translators abroad and in Norway can apply to NORLA for subsidies for sample translations.
Read more here.
NOTE that agents and publishers in Norway can also apply to NORLA, for support for extended sample translations; made possible by funds from the Ministry of Culture as a step towards making Norwegian literature exports an industry.
Translators of Norwegian literature may also apply to NORLA for subsidies for sample translations from books of interest. For translators, there are no application deadlines.
Read more (in Norwegian) here.
Translated Days in Oslo: Breakfast for Norwegian-translators
During the Translated Days festival (“Oversatte dager”), NORLA will be taking the opportunity to into invite Norwegian-translators for breakfast “at home” with us, in other words at our office in Observatoriegt. 1B, on Friday March 1st. Between 0930 and 1100.
There will be simple refreshments and pleasant mingling, with colleagues and those of us who work at NORLA.
We look forward to a great start to this great year for Norwegian literature where Norway is Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse, and also to Book Year 2019 which is being held all over Norway.
All translators of Norwegian literature are very much welcome, whether you live in Norway or abroad!
Read more on how to register here (in Norwegian)
Translated days in Oslo: When "Gleden med skjeden" became "The Wonder Down Under”
This small, feminist information project “Gleden med skjeden” by Nina Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl has now become an international phenomenon, and the translation rights have been sold for more than 30 languages.
It can be difficult enough to talk about women’s genitalia in Norwegian. How does anyone do it in Russian or Polish? Where does the boundary lie between translation and adaptation? How can a book like this be distributed in countries where women have a totally different position than in Norway? How far do you really have to travel before Scandinavian directness begins to create problems for translators? And how do you say “discomus” in English?
As part of the Translated Days festival, at Oslo’s Litteraturhuset (the House of Literature), NORLA has invited three of the book’s translators, and one of the authors, for a panel discussion on Saturday, March 2nd.
Time: 12.00-12.45.
Venue: Amalie Skram, the House of Literature.
Spring's New Voices to publisher’s seminar in London
On the eve of the London International Book Fair, the five New Voices will be taking part in a publisher’s seminar, organised by NORLA in collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in London.
Read more about the five authors comprising spring’s New Voices here.
And read more about the New Voices programme here.
NORLA to the London Book Fair
NORLA will be attending the London Book Fair at Olympia 10th-12th. April and, as before, we can be found at the Norwegian stand: 6 F 70.
We look forward to meeting both established and new contacts. Please contact us to book meetings!
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for non-fiction
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for non-fiction (for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 February).
Read more about the translation subsidy here.
A great start for the Guest of Honour Year, at the Leipzig Book Fair 2019
From 21st-24th of March, 18 Norwegian authors and illustrators will be participating in the Leipzig Book Fair. You will be able to meet authors, illustrators and NORLA at the Nordic countries stand in hall 4 (stand C400).
Read more and see the complete program on our Frankfurt 2019-website.
A complete program is also available as PDF here
NORLA to meet Czech publishers in Prague during Norwegian Literature Weeks
March 29, NORLA will meet Czech publishers in Prague during Norwegian Literature Weeks and talk about NORLA, Norwegian literature and Frankfurt 2019.
The meeting takes place in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Prague.
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian fiction
Read more about the translation subsidy for Norwegian fiction here.
Foreign publishers may also apply for production subsidies for children’s and young adult’s picture books by Norwegian authors and illustrators.
Read more about the scheme here.
NORLA to the Bologna Book Fair
NORLA is also participating at this year’s children’s book fair in Bologna, Italy.
In addition, the Norwegian book industry will be gathered on a large, shared exhibition stand at the book fair. You will find us in Hall 30, stand E13!
Contact us if you would like to arrange a meeting.
Deadline: Nominate candidates for NORLA’s Translator's Award 2019
NORLA annually hands out an award to a translator of Norwegian literature. The award is given for translations directly from Norwegian.
In 2019, the award will be given to a talented young translator of fiction as an encouragement towards continued efforts.
We would very much like to hear from you about deserving candidates!
jazzahead! in Bremen
Norway is the focus country at the world’s largest jazz fair, jazzahead! in Bremen (April 25-28). Both before and during the fair itself, there will be a wealth of exciting musical and literary events on offer, with a total of 117 (!) musicians and several authors from Norway participating:
Tore Renberg, Gudrun Skretting, Ketil Bjørnstad and Lars Saabye Christensen are all invited to various reading events.
In addition to this, Jan Erik Vold, Eirik Raude, Ellen Bødtker and Trygve Seim will perform the concert “Summer out there” in Sendesaal on April 18th.
On April 24th, Ketil Bjørnstad, Anneli Drecker and Lars Saabye Christensen will perform the latter’s poem in "A Suite of Poems.”
The touring exhibition of Norwegian illustrations is on show, and also on offer is a theatre marathon with stagings of Karl Ove Knausgård’s novels My Struggle 4, 5 and 6.
NORLA's offices are closed for Easter until Tuesday April 23
NORLA’s offices are closed for Easter as of Wednesday April 17.
We open again Tuesday April 23.
Happy Easter!
Norway is Guest of Honour at the Budapest International Book Fair
And no less than nine Norwegian authors are part of the program!
Hungarian readers will meet Bjørn Berge, Marta Breen, Bjarte Breiteig, Åsmund Eikenes, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Tomas Espedal, Vigdis Hjorth, Klara Hveberg and Karl Ove Knausgård.
See all the Norwegian events here
And see pictures here
German-Norwegian Literature Festival in Oslo: "On the way to Frankfurt"
On the last weekend in April, there will be no less than 100 writers, translators, journalists and social-commentators – from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Norway – in full swing at Litteraturhuset in Oslo.
For three consecutive days, German literature will be presented via readings, lectures, conversations, close readings, and music. In addition, lines will be drawn between social debates in Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
We are looking forward to an incredibly rich program and to having German journalists at the festival!
NORLA's offices are closed until May 2
NORLA’s offices are closed Wednesday May 1.
We open again Thursday May 2.
New season at NORLA’s Translators Hotel
We are looking forward to welcoming four new translators of Norwegian literature to NORLA’s Translators Hotel in Oslo, at Hotell Bondeheimen.
This spring is the tenth season of our popular programme!
Read more about NORLA’s translators hotel and previous guests here.
Norwegian children's and young adult book weeks in Cologne
Norway is this year’s guest country at the international children’s and young adult book weeks in Cologne, and 11 authors and illustrators from Norway participate in various events.
In addition to the many exciting literary events both for the general public and for school classes, the festival will screen Norwegian films and stage a play by the Bergen-based company Open Windows, based on Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus’s award-winning picture book Kind (original title: Snill).
There will also be an exhibition of Stian Hole’s illustrations alongside photographs by Ute Behrend and Thekla Ehling.
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for fiction
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for fiction (for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 April).
Read more about the translation subsidy here.
NORLA's offices are closed Thursday May 17
NORLA’s offices are closed Friday May 17, due to Norway’s Constitution Day.
We wish everyone a Happy 17th of May!
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.
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction
Read more about the translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction here.
Foreign publishers may also apply for production subsidies for the publication of Norwegian non-fiction containing a large number of illustrations or with exceptionally demanding technical production requirements.
Read more about the scheme here.
Press conference in Frankfurt
The Frankfurt project also involves a comprehensive cultural program. Norway has a truly exceptional opportunity in 2019, to present its cultural expressions at some of Germany’s most prominent art and cultural venues. We will announce our autumn program at a press conference in Frankfurt on June 4.
NORLA's offices are closed until Tuesday June 11
NORLA’s offices are closed until Tuesday June 11, due to Whitsun holiday.
Four of the Spring's New Voices to the Midsummer Festival in Leipzig and Berlin
Tore Skeie, Bår Stenvik, Maria Kjos Fonn and Marianne Kaurin will be taking part in the literature festival at Litteraturhaus in Leipzig together with author Maja Lunde June 19 (read more). Moderator is Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel.
Venue and time: Haus des Buches, 19:30-21:30.
Read more
Tore Skeie, Bår Stenvik, Maria Kjos Fonn and Marianne Kaurin will also take part in an event in Berlin June 20, directed by the Norwegian Embassy (read more). Moderator is Thomas Böhm.
Venue and time: Felleshus, 19:30.
Read more
Free entry, but registration is necessary.
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for non-fiction
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for non-fiction (for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 June).
Read more about the translation subsidy here.
Registration deadline (foreign publishers): Books for the "Books on Norway" exhibition during Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019
Publishers from all around the world are invited by the Frankfurter Buchmesse to show their current titles on the Guest of Honour. This year’s exhibition “Books on Norway” in the Guest of Honour pavilion will include about 500 – 1,000 titles and collects translated literature as well as books about the Guest of Honour. I.e. politics, culture, language, history and society.
The registration is free of charge for publishing houses and certain critera apply.
The registration deadline is July 31.
Read more about the exhibition and how to register here
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian fiction
Read more about the translation subsidy for Norwegian fiction here.
Foreign publishers may also apply for production subsidies for children’s and young adult’s picture books by Norwegian authors and illustrators.
Read more about the scheme here.
Application deadline: Author and lecturer visits to institutions of higher learning abroad
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.
Read more here.
Application deadline: NORLA's Translators hotel autumn 2019
September 1 is the application deadline for translators of Norwegian literature regarding stays at NORLA’s Translators hotel autumn 2019 (weeks 46-47, i.e. as of Monday September 11th through Sunday September 24th).
Please note that the offer is only available for translators who translate directly from Norwegian.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have contributed towards the scheme.
Read more (in Norwegian) here.
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for fiction
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for fiction (for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 August).
Read more about the translation subsidy here.
British celebration of Norway as this year's Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse
The Royal Norwegian Embassy in London, in collaboration with NORLA, is celebrating Norway as Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2019.
The celebration will take place at the ambassador’s residence, with invited British publishers and editors.
American celebration in New York of Norway as this year's Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse
In collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office and the Norwegian Consulate in New York, NORLA is organizing a seminar for American publishers to mark Norway as a Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Three publishers publishers will talk about publishing translated literature: Richard Stoiber of German Matthes & Seitz, Peter Blackstock of American Grove Atlantic and Håkon Harket of Norwegian Press Publishers. The author of Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects, Anne Sverdrup-Tygeson, will also participate.
Application deadline: Sample translation of Norwegian literature
Publishers, agents and translators abroad and in Norway can apply to NORLA for subsidies for sample translations.
Read more here.
NOTE that agents and publishers in Norway can also apply to NORLA, for support for extended sample translations; made possible by funds from the Ministry of Culture as a step towards making Norwegian literature exports an industry.
Translators of Norwegian literature may also apply to NORLA for subsidies for sample translations from books of interest. For translators, there are no application deadlines.
Read more (in Norwegian) here.
NORLA and autumn's five New Voices to the Gothenburg Book Fair
As usual NORLA will be taking part at the Göteborg Book Fair and we will be available at the International Rights Center, at table number B7 and B8.
Contact us if you want to arrange a meeting.
Read more about the book fair’s rich program here.
See the covers of Norwegian books recently published in Swedish through NORLA’s and/or the Nordic Council of Ministers’ translation subsidies on our Flickr-profile.
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction
Read more about the translation subsidy for Norwegian non-fiction here.
Foreign publishers may also apply for production subsidies for the publication of Norwegian non-fiction containing a large number of illustrations or with exceptionally demanding technical production requirements.
Read more about the scheme here.
Norway is Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse!
Finally, the book fair is here! We look immensely forward to let participants from all over the world experience the best of literature and culture from Norway!
The Norwegian Guest of Honour project is Norway’s largest cultural export project ever.
As usual, NORLA will be present at the Norwegian collective stand, 5.0 A53, where we – in meetings – will present our selected titles of the autumn. Please contact us should you wish to book a meeting.
Would you like to receive our daily newsletter during the the book fair?
Sign up for it via our project website, norway2019.com. Scroll all the way down and write your e-mail address in the field at the bottom right-hand side of the page.
We are pleased to offer a rich and diverse Guest of Honour program:
See the complete programme day by day here
*The program taking place in the Guest of Honour Pavilion at Frankfurter Buchmesse, both main stage and stage 2 available as PDF here
*See also Frankfurter Buchmesse’s own event calendar
Norway’s guest of honour status continues – in Zofingen, Switzerland!
Norway is also guest of honour at the Literaturtage Zofingen, and seven Norwegian authors are invited to take part in the festival, which is entirely devoted to Norwegian literature. Audience members are expected to travel there from all over Switzerland. The travelling exhibition, “Georg Grosz meets Ulysses in Slapsefjell,” consisting of no fewer than 30 works by 11 Norwegian illustrators will be shown at the Kunsthaus.
A new season at NORLA's Translator Hotel
We look forward to welcoming four new translators of Norwegian literature to NORLA’s translator hotel at the Hotel Bondeheimen in Oslo.
Autumn will be the elecenth season of this popular scheme.
Read more about NORLA’s Translator Hotel and its former guests here.
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for non-fiction
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for non-fiction (for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 1 October).
Read more about the translation subsidy here.
Application deadline: Translation subsidy for Norwegian fiction
Read more about the translation subsidy for Norwegian fiction here.
Foreign publishers may also apply for production subsidies for children’s and young adult’s picture books by Norwegian authors and illustrators.
Read more about the scheme here.
NORLA and author Hanne Ørstavik to attend book fair in Guadalajara, Mexico
The book fair in Guadalajara is the largest in the Spanish speaking world − and on the whole, one of the most pleasantly enjoyable fairs. NORLA will this year again take part in the Guadalajara International Book Fair.
Please “contact us”: mailto: oliver.moystad@norla.no if you would like to schedule a meeting. You will find NORLA at the foreign rights centre, table 110.
Hanne Ørstavik is also invited to attend the book fair. Her novel Love (Amor) was published in Spanish by the publisher Antonio Vallardi editor in 2018, translated by Lotte Katrine Tollefsen.
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for fiction
Meeting of NORLA’s committee of experts for fiction (for the consideration of applications for translation subsidies with deadline 15 November).
Read more about the translation subsidy here.
Book trade meeting in Moscow
On Wednesday, December 11, NORLA and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Moscow will be hosting a half-day seminar on Norwegian non-fiction aimed at Russian publishers, publishers and translators. The programme will give the Russian participants an introduction to the non-fiction field by NORLA, as well as presentations by authors Thomas Reinertsen Berg and Torbjørn Ekelund.
