The translator of the month in September is Åse Birkenheier, who is Norwegian and translates into German.

This year sees the launch of two quite different translations by Åse; Knut Ødegård’s poetry collection It’s time and Asbjørnsen & Moe’s Fairy Tales (Volume 2), for which she has also made the selection of fairy tales. And sharing Norwegian fairy tales with German readers is a thing very close to Åse’s heart. We are pleased that during Frankfurter Buchmesse, she will do just that, in an event at the Norwegian Guest of Honour Pavilion (Saturday October 19, at 11 am on Stage 2 – read more). In addition, she will be presenting fairy tales at the Guest of Honour Pavilion’s Performance table, on Saturday October 19, at 14.30, and on Sunday October 20, at 12.00 og 13.00.

For many years, Åse has been taking actively part in the Deutsch-Norwegische Gesellschaft in Bonn, and she also writes reviews of Norwegian books for readers in Germany.

Women in Translation, or WIT, is a global collaborative project to help remedy the discrepancy between the amount of works by women published in English translation, and how they are critically received. WITMonth is held held every August, to help promote women writers from around the world who write in languages other than English. Here at NORLA we would like to share our own contribution to WITMonth with you.

Translator of the Month for August is German translator Karoline Hippe, who works from Norwegian, Danish and English. Four of her translations from Norwegian are being published this year: children’s book NERD by Mina Lystad, non-fiction book Unongs by Pål Moddi Knutsen, Cappelens Forslag’s Conversation Lexicon (edited by Pil Cappelen Smith), and Lotta Elstad’s novel I Refuse to Think.
In addition to translating, Karoline has taught German as a foreign language and also has experience as a moderator.

Wednesday, August 14th was a big day for Norwegian literature: ten Norwegian books were released during Shanghai International Literature Week. The books are being published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House.

“Over the past five years, Norwegian literature has experienced a huge increase in popularity in China. It’s mainly been literature for children and young adults – illustrated books in particular – and non-fiction for adults. It’s therefore especially gratifying that Shanghai Translation Publishing House’s efforts are now giving Chinese readers access to a wide selection of Norwegian novels in addition to an important non-fiction book,” says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.

400 publications from and about Norway in German in 2018/2019!

Norway’s status as Guest of Honor country at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year has led to a record interest in literature from and about Norway in German-speaking countries. From September 2018 to December 2019, German-language publishers will have released 400 titles from and about Norway. The translators are making a formidable effort.

On our website norway2019.com you will always find an up-to-date overview of literary and cultural events in Germany as well as articles about Norwegian literature, interviews with translators and booksellers and much more!

See the events here.

The month’s translator for June/July is Norwegian-German Ebba D. Drolshagen. In addition to translating Norwegian literature within different genres, she is also the author of several non-fiction books including one about the “German Girls” in Norway (the mistreatment of women who had relationships with German soldiers during WW2). She is currently in the spotlight with her popular travel guide Instructions to Norway (in German: Gebrauchsanweisung für Norwegen), which offers an entertaining introduction to Norway and Norwegians. The book will be published in a new and updated edition this year – in connection with Norway as Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse. In addition Ebba has translated a literary travel guide to Oslo written by Erik Fosnes Hansen, which will also be published in connection with the book fair. Ebba’s translation of Mona Høvring’s Something That Helps was published in spring and has received a lot of positive attention.h2.

Spring as Guest of Honour has been rich, hectic and fun! Some of the highlights being the book fair in Leipzig featuring 18 authors and 40 events; Berlinale, where Norway was the partner country at the European Film Market (EFM); jazzahead! in Bremen which included 117 musicians from Norway; the German-Norwegian literature festival in Oslo with the German press; and The Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer with German booksellers and journalists, international publishers and translators.

Between 25 – 31 May, the Nordic region’s biggest literature festival took place in Lillehammer, and this year’s was bigger than ever! NORLA organised programs both before and during the festival: We arranged a seminar for translators of Norwegian fiction to English, Spanish and Korean – and invited a group of international publishers and scouts to Oslo and Lillehammer in collaboration with the Publishers Association and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, two groups of German guests – including both journalists and booksellers – visited Norway in connection with the festival. Also participating was a group from Georgia – which was the Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse last year – as well as representatives from the book fair itself. All of these groups took part in an exciting and packed program!

The Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019 presented its extensive cultural programme, the concept for the Guest of Honour Pavilion and the list of authors who will attend the fair. Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess Mette-Marit will travel across Germany on a literary train tour in collaboration with Deutsche Bahn AG. Erika Fatland and Karl Ove Knausgård will speak at the fair’s opening ceremony.

With more than 70 program posts we hope to engage and entertain the German and international audience at the main stage in Norway’s Guest of Honour Pavilion from 16 to 20 October 2019.

May’s translator of the month is the Hungarian Bence Patat who has been working as a technical translator and literary translator for almost twenty years.