Leipzig 2025
Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Leipziger Buchmesse, Germany, March 27-30, 2025.
The Leipzig Book Fair is the second largest of its kind in Germany with traditions dating back to the 15th century. For readers, it is Germany’s most important book fair, and pulls in almost 300,000 visitors each year. The Leipzig Book Fair also gets a lot of press attention in the German-speaking world. Parallel to the book fair itself, Leipzig also holds a reading festival, with numerous small and large events all over the city.
Leipzig’s book fair is a key platform for increasing awareness of Norwegian literature. As Guest of Honour in 2025, and under the slogan Traum im Frühling (Dream of Spring), Norway will present a broad program where the focus will be on authors who have recently been published in German translation. The goal is increased sales and awareness of Norwegian literature in Germany. We hope to contribute to the joy of reading and the exchange of ideas, and plan on conversations being a common thread during the program.
Read more about the Norwegian Guest of Honour initiative here.
36 Norwegian Authors to Germany
From March 26 to 30, 2025, Norway will be the Guest of Honour at Leipziger Buchmesse, Germany’s largest public book fair.
Over the course of four days, NORLA will fill stages at the Leipzig Messe, and in the city itself, with a rich and varied program, where Norwegian authors and literature will have the leading role. Nearly 40 authors have accepted the invitation to participate in Leipzig, including prominent names like Vigdis Hjorth, Johan Harstad, Karl Ove Knausgård, Anna Fiske, Trude Teige, and Kristin Valla. These authors represent litearture for both adults and children, in all genres.
Activities in Germany
We are thrilled to launch the project Du hast eine neue Freundschaftsanfrage! (You Have a New Friend Request!), which is part of the Norwegian Guest of Honour initiative.
Here Norwegian authors Peter F. Strassegger, Helene Imislund, and Kristin Vego exchange letters with their German colleagues Matthias Jügler, Janin Wölke, and Kristina Schilke.
Wednesday October 23, they will meet each other, face to face, and read their letters aloud in an open event in Leipzig, during the Literarischer Herbst festival.
Activities in 2024
The planning for Norway as Guest of Honour at the 2025 Leipzig Book Fair is well underway. At this year’s book fair, several Norwegian authors met their German readers. And this autumn we are especially excited about authors from both languages meeting each other under the headline “On the Way to Leipzig”, in Stavanger.