Fosse Prize 2026 awarded to translator Paula Stevens

During a formal ceremony at the Royal Palace in Oslo on April 23, the Fosse Prize for Translators 2026 was presente, once again highlighting Norway’s strong commitment to literature as an international and intellectual meeting place.

At the centre of the evening was Paula Stevens, this year’s laureate. Over more than four decades, she has translated nearly 90 Norwegian books into Dutch, making her one of the most important ambassadors of Norwegian literature abroad. Her work has not only introduced key authors such as Johan Harstad, Karl Ove Knausgård and Roy Jacobsen to new readers, but has also helped shape the field through mentoring younger translators and strengthening literary exchange between Norway and the Dutch-speaking world. Towards the end of her acceptance speech, Stevens quoted her predecessor, the German translator and 2025 Fosse Prize laureate Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel: “Today I am the happiest translator in the world.”

In her address, NORLA Director Margit Walsø emphasised precisely this long-term impact, describing Stevens as a translator who has achieved a truly distinctive position through both her literary sensitivity and her tireless work for Norwegian literature internationally.

The prize was presented by Norway’s Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery, who underlined the broad cultural significance of translation. She highlighted Stevens’ crucial role in bringing Norwegian literature to new audiences and described the Fosse Prize as a platform that strengthens the place of literature in society.

Alongside the award ceremony, the evening featured the Fosse Lecture, delivered this year by Marilynne Robinson. In her lecture, On Faith and Freedom of Thought, Robinson explored the relationship between literature, faith and intellectual life. She reflected on how literature can offer moral and spiritual insight, argued against reductionist views of the human being, and emphasised the importance of freedom, imagination and dignity.

Robinson’s themes resonated strongly with those found in the work of Jon Fosse: questions of faith, grace and human existence. As noted during the ceremony, both authors engage deeply with the spiritual dimension of literature: not as dogma, but as a way of understanding human experience.

Held under the patronage of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the event brought together authors, translators and cultural figures, reaffirming literature’s role as a space for reflection, dialogue and connection across languages and borders. By honouring Paula Stevens, the Fosse Prize 2026 celebrated not only an outstanding individual achievement, but also the art of translation itself: an essential, yet often invisible, craft.

The Fosse Lecture and the Fosse Prize for Translators were established by the Norwegian government to honour Nobel Prize laureate Jon Fosse. The laureate is selected by the National Library of Norway and Jon Fosse himself, in consultation with NORLA.