NORLA’s annual report for 2024 is now available.
2024 was another successful and eventful year for Norwegian literature abroad. The German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel was named the first recipient of the new Fosse Prize. At the book fair in Cairo, Norway, as Guest of Honour, was able to build a literary bridge to the Arab world. Preparations for the upcoming Guest of Honour appearances at the book fairs in Leipzig 2025 and Bologna 2026 also moved into detailed planning.
NORLA in 2024
In 2024, the first winner of the Fosse Prize was announced, and the first Fosse Lecture speaker was selected. The Fosse Prize is awarded for a translator’s body of work, and NORLA nominated candidates to the jury, which consisted of the National Library of Norway, Jon Fosse, and NORLA. On 23 November, German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel was named the winner of the 2025 Fosse Prize for Translators, and French philosopher and theologian Jean-Luc Marion was invited to give the first Fosse Lecture. These are two prestigious events established by the Norwegian government to honour Nobel Laureate in Literature Jon Fosse, as an annual celebration of the importance of translation, literature, and drama.
NORLA’s main initiative in 2024 was Norway’s role as Guest of Honour at the Cairo International Book Fair. The fair is a key cultural meeting place and publishing industry arena for the entire Arab world. The project placed strong emphasis on exchange and dialogue with Egypt’s literary scene, and the programme was built around author encounters between Norwegian and Egyptian writers. One of NORLA’s main goals was to help increase the number of translations from Norwegian into Arabic, and we will continue to follow up on this. The book fair receives major media attention throughout the Arab world, and 2024 was no exception. We achieved an overwhelmingly strong impact with our programme and Norway’s presence at the fair, which had nearly 5 million visitors.
Photo: Ahmed Raafat
The Norwegian stand drew large crowds, where visitors could experience literature, knowledge, and art from Norway — both visually and through author events and a professional programme presented by NORLA, the Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books, and MUNCH. For the authors participating with recently translated books in Arabic, the media response was particularly overwhelming. The Cairo book fair has thus helped significantly raise the visibility of Norwegian literature in the Arab region.
Throughout 2024, numerous events and initiatives were carried out in preparation for Norway’s Guest of Honour appearance at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2025, and we continued laying the groundwork for the Guest of Honour project at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April 2026.
You can download NORLA’s annual report below (in Norwegian only)
