News from NORLA

Leonardo Pinto Silva - Translator of the Month for May 2018

Our translator of the month for May is Leonardo Pinto Silva, from Brazil.

He has several different works published this spring, including selected plays by Henrik Ibsen. Two of the pieces have been joined to make “An Enemy at the Doll’s House”, which premiered on May 17, and was directed by Camila Bauer, winner of last year’s international Ibsen Awards!
Leonardo has also translated Jon Roar Bjørkvold’s book The Muse Within (original title: Det musiske menneske) which was recently launched in Brazil.

April greeting from the Frankfurt team

April has been an eventful month. Some of the highlights were the visit from the Frankfurt Book Fair, the press conference where the project’s new partners were presented and the jury meetings for evaluating the incoming design proposals for the Guest of Honour Pavilion. May will include visits from publishers and a press trip in connection with the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer and further development of the literary program.

"Literature Go Global" generates huge interest

In connection with the announcement of the Literature Go Global program an information meeting was held on April 19, for Norwegian literary agents and rights managers at NORLA.

Literature Go Global (Litteratur ut i verden) is an export and competence program for literary agents. It aims to contribute to increased Norwegian literature exports and strengthen the Norwegian agencies and the book industry’s competitive powers internationally. The program is a collaboration between the Ministry of Culture, Innovation Norway and NORLA.

Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, attended and presented the book fair as a venue for international rights trading. Afterwards Margit Klingen Daams, head of cultural and creative industry at Innovation Norway, presented the Literature Go Global program, and the application process.

There was a high attendance and good dialogue concerning the program after the presentation, and many interesting questions from the hall.

The Frankfurt Project is now almost fully funded

In 2019, Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest and most important meeting place for literature. The project has been broadly supported by both public and private funding, it recently gained several new partners and is now almost fully financed.

Eighth season of NORLA's Translators Hotel

Today, NORLA had the pleasure of welcoming four new translators to Oslo for the eighth season of our translators hotel at Hotell Bondeheimen.

The four translators are:
Dana Caspi (Hebrew)
Elke Ranzinger (German)
Sanda Tomescu Baciu (Romanian)
Daniela Mrázová (Czech).

We look forward to spending the next two weeks in their company!

Jelena Ratsjinskaja - Translator of the Month for April 2018

Our translator of the month for April is Jelena Ratsjinskaja from Russia.

She is currently one of the initiators and organisers of a major theatre festival which took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg last week, which was entirely devoted to the dramas of Jon Fosse. In connection with the festival, twelve of Fosse’s plays were published in book form for the first time, in Russian, translated by Jelena, Vera Diakonova and Alla Rybikova.
In addition to translating Fosse’s drama and Norwegian fiction, Jelena has both translated and presented a large amount of Norwegian non-fiction to a Russian audience. In 2008 she was awarded NORLA’s translator award.

Jury work is under way!

The Guest of Honour pavilion is the most visually important part of The Frankfurt project. In January, NORLA and DOGA announced an open architecture competition for the pavilion’s design. 66 proposals were approved for further consideration, and in early April the jury met for the first time.

NORLA Presents: Selected Norwegian Titles Spring 2018

We invite you to take a closer look at our selected titles for the spring of 2018 here.

New export program takes Norwegian literature abroad

Innovation Norway is launching a new export program in cooperation with NORLA, which will assist literary agents in selling more Norwegian literature abroad.

As part of the government’s commitment to the cultural and creative industries, Innovation Norway has been commissioned to implement an export program for Norwegian literary agents in cooperation with NORLA. Literature Go Global (Litteratur ut i verden) will contribute to strengthening Norwegian literature’s competitiveness in international markets; building solid agencies that can represent Norwegian authors internationally; and make use of the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair, as a strategic arena for selling Norwegian literature.

New colleague in NORLA

We are most fortunate to now have Janicken von der Fehr as project coordinator in NORLA. She is responsible for the program, “Literature Go Global” (in Norwegian: “Litteratur ut i verden”, a collaboration between Innovation Norway and NORLA aimed at increasing Norwegian literary agents’ foreign right sales.
Janicken has long experience from the book industry, with a background as marketing manager and editor of translated fiction in Pax Forlag.
We welcome Janicken!