Today is World Bee Day, and at NORLA, we would like to celebrate by sharing a TEDx talk and a podcast with Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, professor in conservation biology and author of the very interesting and amusing book Extraordinary Insects (original title: Insektenes planet).

Her TEDx talk is called “Insects Are Extraordinary. And They May Save Your Life”.
Hear it here (15 mins).

We also recommend the podcast which offers an interview in English (second link, approx. 30 mins), and a reading from the book in German and Norwegian (first link, 44 mins).
Hear it here.

NORLA’s subsidy scheme for export and market initiatives will boost demand, exports, and market development for Norwegian books and authors abroad, The scheme supports the development of good marketing ideas and initiatives for titles which have a strong potential, which contribute to new initiatives or put wind in the sails of ongoing projects with international partners. There are many initiatives being planned – and we are now ready to announce the second round of projects to be awarded grants this year.

Our translator of the month for May is Andreas Donat (b. 1983) from Austria. He is fairly new to the world of translation having started in 2018 and has since then translated Hanne Ørstavik and Roskva Koritzinsky among others. Andreas is also a classical pianist and in the years prior to corona you could sometimes hear him performing at various concert venues around the world. He grew up in Vienna, lived in Oslo for several years, and now lives in Berlin.
Andreas’s work will soon be in the spotlight with Gine Cornelia Pedersen’s Zero (original title: Null) and Hanne Ørstavik’s Ti amo.

Norwegian books travel far and wide and at NORLA, we are always pleased when the books, their authors, illustrators and translators receive well-deserved literary distinctions from abroad.
Here you will find information on literary prizes, awards and nominations that we have noted so far in 2021.

As part of the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer, we had been looking forward to welcoming members of the international book trade to a fellowship at the brand new rights centre: Lillehammer Rights. This year’s festival focuses on the Nordic region and we have instead invited Nordic publishers and editors to a number of webinars from May 26-28.

The aim of NORLA’s translation subsidy is to contribute to increasing the number of books from Norway that are translated, published and distributed abroad. The criteria for the translation subsidy have now been reviewed by NORLA’s board and updated accordingly.

Between May 25 and 30, the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer will be underway. And this year they are offering a combined physical and digital program focussing on Nordic literature.

This year we at NORLA will be travelling digitally to the festival and are now also offering translators of Norwegian literature the chance to participate in the digital program, totally free of charge. (Last year the festival’s entire digital program was free, however this year digital participation will require a separate pass).

We are pleased to announce that as of May 1, Ellen Trautmann Olerud is NORLA’s Adviser for International Markets.

For everybody working at NORLA, sparking the joy of reading is a true privilege. And today we are happy to celebrate World Book Day by recommending books from our selected spring titles.

You will find more information on all the spring titles here.

In a year where so much change has occurred because of a pandemic, the interest in Norwegian literature abroad has remained remarkably high.
In 2020, NORLA received a total of 660 applications for translation support – a record number (read more). NORLA’s plans needed to adapt to the demands of the corona situation, so all our activities for promoting Norwegian literature were changed to digital alternatives. Through the use of “digital authors” and the development of digital book trade meetings, Norwegian literature has not only reached out it has also found new target groups and audiences. Now you can read more about all the exciting things that happened in 2020.

Read our annual report here (in Norwegian only).

Our translator of the month for April is the French translator Marina Heide. After growing up in a French-Norwegian family in the Paris area Marina now lives in Stockholm. She works mainly with fiction as well as children’s and young adult literature, and will soon be in the spotlight with a new translation of The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas. Marina is also the French voice for Maja Lunde and Merethe Lindstrøm, among others.

We at NORLA are proud and delighted to present our selected titles for the spring: 24 wonderful books which are divided into fiction and non-fiction, for both adults, children and young adults.
See all the selected titles here

You can also watch the authors and illustrators present their books in short-film form.
The films are available here, on our YouTube channel