Budget boost for NORLA
The government’s proposed 2020 budget mentions NORLA and the Norwegian Guest of Honour project at Frankfurter Buchmesse: “The project has led to record-high demand for Norwegian literature abroad. Based on this, and as part of the government’s focus on profiling and exporting Norwegian art and culture abroad, an increase of four million kroner to NORLA’s regular subsidy is proposed.”
Now, a week before the opening of Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019 with Norway as Guest of Honour, we see that no fewer than 510 books from and about Norway will have been published in German between September 2018 and December 2019. Of these, 229 are new German translations of Norwegian titles. This places Norway among the guests of honour that have achieved the largest number of translations, meaning that Norwegian literature is reaching German readers to a much greater extent than previously. This, again, has a major influence on the international market. It is a great joy for us that, with the government’s support, we will now be able to make the most of the long-term effects of the Guest of Honour project in Germany and internationally in the years ahead, says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.
