In Oslo, on September 26, while celebrating International Translation Day, or Hieronymus Day as it’s known in Norway, NORLA presented its annual translation award for the nineteenth time. NORLA’s Translator’s Award for 2024 goes to Mišo Grundler for his outstanding work in translating Norwegian non-fiction into Croatian. Congratulations!

We at NORLA are both proud and delighted to present our Selected Titles for the Autumn:

25 wonderful books which are divided into fiction and non-fiction, for both adults, children and young adults.
See all the Selected Titles below

At NORLA, we are working intensively on Norway’s two Guest of Honour projects, which will take place at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2025 and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2026. In the coming months, we look forward to many exciting events related to these initiatives.

Our translator of the Month this September is Astri Ghosh, who has made the works of authors such as Henrik Ibsen, Jon Fosse, Qurratulain Hyder and Rabindranath Tagore accessible to readers across linguistic and cultural borders.

We are very happy to welcome two new colleagues aboard!

Our Translator of the Month for August is Olga Drobot, who translates from Norwegian to Russian full-time. Among the many authors she has translated, are Henrik Ibsen, Per Petterson, Erlend Loe, Roy Jacobsen, Lars Saabye Christensen, Karl Ove Knausgård, Maria Parr, Rune Belsvik, and Bjørn F. Rørvik. Olga holds a PhD in Nordic literature history from Moscow University. She loves children’s books and is an expert in reading to children. She also participates in the “Ibsen in Translation” project, and has recently helped organize a literature school — “Free Word” — in Armenia.

Our Translator of the Month for July is Alex Fouillet, who translates both fiction, including crime novels, and non-fiction from Norwegian to French. During his studies at Sorbonne University, he became acquainted with Norwegian texts and especially liked the excerpts from the Varg Veum novels so much that he decided to translate one of the books, initially on his own, soon helped by his close friend Elisabeth Tangen. That’s when the adventure truly began. Since then, he has translated over seventy books, mainly Norwegian crime fiction novels, but also other genres and a few books from Danish and Swedish. Alex currently lives in Caen, where he also teaches at the Nordic Department at the University of Caen.

When Jon Fosse’s Hungarian translator Éva Dobos is in the Fosse bubble, few things can get her out of it. Here, she shares her first meeting with his literature, and how she had to fight to have Fosse published in Hungarian.

Our Translator of the Month for June is Carmen Freixanet, who hails from the city of Manlleu, situated between the Pyrenees and Barcelona. She studied Spanish and Catalan languages and literature at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and later taught these subjects in the adult education sector. Carmen has lived in Oslo for 17 years, where her enthusiasm for Norwegian culture, literature, and language blossomed.
Carmen’s love for literature in general, and Norwegian literature in particular, led her to begin translating both non-fiction and fiction. Her latest translations are Erika Fatland’s three books about her travels to various parts of the world.

Carmen sings in a choir, and she believes that this type of activity helps to release tension, express emotions, and also aids in writing. She now lives in the municipality of Palafrugell, on the Costa Brava coast in Catalonia.

This week, we have warmly welcomed four translators to Oslo for a two-week stay at Hotel Bondeheimen. The translators now in place in Oslo, and also working from NORLA’s offices, are:

Paul Russell Garrett (Canada/Great Britain)
Öyvind Vågen (Sweden)
Željka Černok (Croatia)
Andrea Romanzi (Italy)

In 2023, NORLA granted subsidies for translation of Norwegian literature into 51 different languages. A total of 553 applications for translation grants were received, of which 546 were approved, distributed among 440 fiction titles and 106 non-fiction titles.
Children’s and young adult books account for just under a quarter of all translations, regardless of genre.

Our Translator of the Month for May is Cristina Falcinella, originally from Milan, Italy, where she specialized in Nordic studies before obtaining a doctorate in Gender Studies/Norwegian theatre. She has primarily translated fiction but also non-fiction, and for the theatre. Cristina is currently, and with great pleasure, working on another Jon Fosse book, Olav’s Dreams (original title: Olavs draumar), after a long hiatus of intense ‘motherhood’ and overlapping literary and musical activities. Looking out of her window, she sees the Mediterranean from the Catalan coast in Barcelona, where she has been residing for over twenty years now, amidst the intersection of multiple languages and cultures, but with Norway nestled in her heart.