Our September translator of the month is Tamara Kalandadze from Georgia. She recently translated The Girl Who Wanted to Save the Books by Klaus Hagerup and Lisa Aisato. Her next translation project is A Tale of Terrible Times by Olaug Nilssen. We at NORLA have become very curious about Georgian literature and culture since Georgia is Guest of Honour at this year’s book fair in Frankfurt, and look forward to «Georgia Made By Characters».

We are therefore using this opportunity to learn a little more and get some book tips from Tamara.

We look forward to the many activities coming up this autumn!
First, the book fair in Beijing was held last week, where NORLA participated for the ninth consecutive year.
We also attended the Haugesund Film Festival, where we participated in the seminar Books from Haugesund for the second year in a row.
This week the fourth batch of writers began our author program New Voices. The five participants will attend events all around Europe throughout autumn – some will also visit Japan.

We are very much looking forward to a packed Autumn, the highlight being Frankfurter Buchmesse. From then on we will officially be Guest of Honour! We are also looking forward to visits in Norway from German booksellers; putting the final touches to our literature and cultural programs; and travelling far and wide to promote Norwegian literature and art as part of the Frankfurt project.

The Chinese book market’s interest in Norwegian books is growing steadily, and this month NORLA participaties at the Beijing International Book Fair for the ninth consecutive year.

Our August translator of the month is Shen Chang, from China. She has recently translated Einar Steen-Nøkleberg’s book Onstage With Grieg, and earlier this summer both she and the author participated in a highly successful promotional trip to Beijing and the music institute Art Service Center for Scholars (ARTS).

Would you like to work with literature and be part of Norway’s largest cultural export project ever? Are you well organized and fond of writing?

As an intern at NORLA you will get a foot in the door in the Norwegian literary sphere and useful experience in project management as well as communication and PR. The position is suitable for a student or graduate who is fluent in German and English and is looking to obtain experience.
Working hours are flexible within 3 days a week for a limited period of time during autumn 2018. The place of work is Oslo.

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.

The last six months have been filled with activities in connection with the Frankfurt project and NORLA’s core efforts. Publisher and translator seminars, expert visits from curators, and press tours are just some of the things that have taken place over the last few months. We’re looking forward to the autumn! The highlight will be when Norway receives the Guest Scroll from Georgia during the book fair in Frankfurt in October. This will mark the official start of our year as Guest of Honour!

In 2019, Norway will be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. As Guest of Honour, Norway will have a 2300 m2 indoor pavilion. In January, NORLA, in collaboration with The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DOGA) and The Norwegian Architectural Association (NAL), announced an open plan and design contest for the design of the pavilion. 66 applications were approved for further judgment. The results of the competition have now been released.

There’s been quite a lot of activity at NORLA over the last month, with many great meetings both at home and abroad! We would like to share some photos and briefly inform you about the various events that have taken place.

Last week, the seven chosen agencies in the Literature Go Global program had their first group meeting in Innovation Norway’s premises in Oslo – and the atmosphere was fantastic from the very start.