One glimmer of light this spring is that with so many cancelled events organisers have had to think differently: There are of course many possibilities in this digital age!

Internationally, literature from Norway is in an incredibly strong position. 2019 was the year that Norway featured as Guest of Honour at the world’s most important book fair – Frankfurter Buchmesse – with the motto The Dream We Carry. NORLA planned and implemented this initiative on behalf of the government and the book industry.

Thanks to the Guest of Honour initiative, the number of books that were published in German reached a record high in 2019: 510 titles from or about Norway. One hundred authors from Norway came to the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair, with 100,000 people visiting the pavilion. Almost two hundred authors participated in a program in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland in 2019, and a total of 1120 literary or cultural events were held in German-speaking regions. Norway set a record for media attention as guest country, being mentioned 14,997 times throughout the autumn of 2019.

“Thanks to all the publications in German during its year as Guest of Honour, Norwegian literature has a bigger window on other languages too. With targeted efforts in the future towards other markets, we will be able to see the long-term ripple effects of the work behind the guest-country initiative,” says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.

POSTPONED: Due to the latest developments concerning the coronavirus and new guidelines from the Institute of Public Health, the conference marking the end of the Literature Go Global program is postponed.
This is seen as a necessary measure to limit the risk of spreading the corona virus. At the same time we are doing our best to set an alternative date for the conference.

According to German sales figures six books from Norway made it to the bestseller lists for 2019, the year Norway was Guest of Honour at the world’s most important book fair; Frankfurter Buchmesse:

February’s Translator of the Month is Anne Bruce from Scotland. She has been put forward by – and has received a question from – her Mexican translator colleague Juan Gutiérrez-Maupomé. Now the translators featured in NORLA’s series are passing the baton from one to the other.

Anne translates fiction and has admirable experience with crime novels. In 2019 her translation of Jørn Lier Horst’s The Katharine Code was awarded the coveted British prize The Petrona Award for best translated Scandinavian crime novel published in 2019.

Learn more about Anne and the books she has translated here.

Those of you who understand Norwegian can read her Translator of the Month interview here.

Today is the Sami National Day, and everyone at NORLA offers our warmest congratulations to all our Sami friends and the Sami people: Læhkoeh biejjine – Vuorbbe biejvijn – Lihkku beivviin – Gratulerer med dagen!

See below for pictures from some of last year’s events at Frankfurter Buchmesse featuring Sami authors and literature.

We also recommend the Book Fair’s official Guest of Honour film from Norway’s pavilion, which includes Sami joik from 03:40 mins. and a soundtrack by Elle Márjá Eira – who also performed at the opening ceremony of the fair.
Watch the film here

February 5-7, NORLA will host a seminar for 10 international non-fiction editors from seven countries: The Netherlands, France, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Russia and Canada.
Norwegian non-fiction has received a lot of international attention in recent years, and NORLA wants to take advantage of this trend by giving non-fiction literature an extra boost.

The international editors will meet Norwegian non-fiction authors, literary agents and editors in Oslo, before taking the train Thursday night across the mountains to Bergen to experience the city’s International Literary Festival.
This is a collaboration between NORLA and Bergen International Literary Festival.

February 1 is the application deadline for translators of Norwegian literature regarding stays at NORLA’s Translators hotel spring 2019 (weeks 19-20, i.e. as of Monday May 6th through Sunday May 19th).
Please note that the offer is only available for translators who translate directly from Norwegian.

The application deadline is 1 March.
Read more here (in Norwegian only).

We invite foreign publishers/editors, sub-agents and scouts to apply for participation in our seminar at the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer, May 2020. This year, the focus will be on literature for children and young adults.

The fellowship program is organised by NORLA in collaboration with the Norwegian Publishers’ Association, and supported financially by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The fellowship program runs from 26 to 29 May 2020.
The application deadline is 31 January 2020.

Read more

In connection with Norway being Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2019, NORLA and Grafill collaborated on a touring exhibition with Norwegian book illustrations. As a finale, the exhibition is now coming to Norway, and Grafill’s premises in Oslo and will be on display January 9 – February 2.
The exhibition "Georg Grosz meets Mulysses on Slush Mountain. Modern illustration from Norway” includes work by eleven Norwegian illustrators, selected from a variety of new Norwegian picture books for both children and adults, all of which can be found in books that are translated and available in German.

During 2019, the exhibition has been shown in a number of cities in Germany and Switzerland: Berlin (2 times), Bremen, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Zofingen and Wohlen.

A great year for Norwegian literature exports is now behind us. Norway has been the Guest of Honour at the world’s most important book fair and this huge endeavour, which NORLA has worked on for more than six years, has been a success; never has a Guest of Honour drawn so much media attention in the German-speaking countries and sales figures are record high. The literary program at the book fair engaged the public and the cultural program attracted attention all over Germany.
You can find out more about these figures here.

We are happy to share some key figures from Norway as a Guest of Honour at this year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse. NORLA’s Guest of Honour project report will be presented in the first quarter of 2020: