On April 24, the German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel was awarded the newly established Fosse Prize in a dignified and splendid celebration at the Royal Palace in Oslo. He held a wonderful acceptance speech, and we are now thrilled to be able share his words, by popular demand.
See the nominees for the 2025 Nordic Council Literature Prize
We offer our warmest congratulations to Niels Fredrik Dahl - winner of the 2024 Nordic Council Literature Prize for his novel "Fars rygg" (English working title: "Walking Man")!
See all nominees for the 2024 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize
NORLA congratulates Kjersti Synneva Moen on winning the 2023 Pondus Prize for her graphic novel "Seize the Fucking Day"!
This week marks the start of NORLA’s new talent program, New Voices for Children and Young Adults. The program is aimed at Norwegian authors writing fiction and non-fiction for young readers, and its goal is to provide emerging authors with international experience through travel, networking, and a deeper understanding of the outward-facing aspects of being a writer.
Sabine Richter translates fiction and non-fiction from Norwegian to German. She is originally from East Germany, but has lived and worked for very many years in Norway, as well as the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Spain and Iran. Sabine now lives in beautiful Vienna, but commutes to both Oslo and Madrid.
Her most recent translation work are two novels by Kjersti Anfinnsen, De siste kjærtegn and Øyeblikk for evigheten, which were published as one volume in January 2025: Letzte zärtliche Augenblicke (Septime Verlag).
For a limited time, NORLA guarantees that translation grants awarded to publishers of literature for children and young adults will cover 50 per cent of the translator’s fee, up to a maximum of NOK 100,000 (approx. EUR 8,300). Grants are awarded for translating works of children’s and young adults (YA) books of the genres fiction and general non-fiction, comics and graphic novels, from the Norwegian and Sámi languages. Grants are available only for works originally published in Norway. The guarantee is related to Norway being Guest of Honour at the Bologna Book Fair 2026.
In April 2026, Norway will be the Guest of Honour at the Bologna Book Fair. Established in 1960, this fair is the world’s largest and most important meeting place for the international children’s book industry.
Illustration plays a central role in the fair, and a key element of Norway’s Guest of Honour program will be an exhibition showcasing illustration art from Norwegian books for children and young adults. The exhibition space, approximately 300 m², will be centrally located at the fairground. It will accentuate the high quality of illustrations in Norwegian children’s literature and showcase the diversity of artistic expressions.
Following Jon Fosse being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 for both prose and drama, a collaborative initiative was launched to promote contemporary Norwegian drama, by PAHN (Performing Arts Hub Norway), The Norwegian Centre for New Playwriting – NCNP (Dramatikkens hus), and NORLA. The initiative is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This week, we have warmly welcomed five translators to Oslo for a two-week stay at Hotel Bondeheimen, our Translators Hotel.
In a very dignified and splendid celebration the German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel received the newly established Fosse Prize and the French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion gave the inaugural Fosse Lecture at the Royal Palace in Oslo.
Norway’s Guest of Honour appearance at the Leipzig Book Fair 2025 has come to an end – and it was a resounding success!
Over the course of four days, around 50 Norwegian authors were presented in approximately 80 events in Leipzig. The two main venues for the Norwegian program – the Norwegian stand at the fair and the prestigious Schaubühne Lindenfels – were packed to the brim every single day.
On Sunday March, 30th, the last day of the Leipziger Bucmhesse, a large crowd of knowledge-hungry visitors braved the rain and lined up outside as the doors of Schaubühne Lindenfels, the Norwegian Hub during the book fair, opened. In fact, attendance was so high that the event had to be moved from the small 60-seat hall to the main auditorium—even though not all of the books that were presented are yet available in German.
Our translator of the month for April is Yu-jin Lee, who translates into Korean from Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. The Nordic fairy tales he read as a child have shaped who he is today. He studied Nordic languages at a university in Seoul, South Korea, then completed a master’s degree in literature at Stockholm University in Sweden. In 2025, he earned a PhD in Comparative Literature at Yonsei University in Seoul. Since 2007, he has translated approximately 80 books into Korean, by Nordic authors such as Hege Siri, Karl Ove Knausgård, Stian Hole, Astrid Lindgren, Tove Jansson, Stig Dagerman and Leif G. W. Persson. The inspiration for his work comes from his beloved cat, Blåhval (Blue Whale).
On March 14, the great Norwegian writer Dag Solstad passed away at the age of 83.