We at NORLA want to showcase the crucial work translators do, and this week we will be celebrating the patron saint of translators, St. Hieronymus. Even though our task is promoting Norwegian literature, we like to use the occasion of “Hieronymus day” to recommend good books that have been translated well into Norwegian.
Thank you to all the translators out there who make the worlds literature available to us!

If you happen to read Norwegian you may read our book tips here.
(And if you don’t, you might still be able to figure out the titles, as all are translations into Norwegian).

Week 37 was the week for Norwegian literary events in New York. On Thursday 14 October, Norwegian authors were introduced to American publishers in the residence of the Norwegian consulate general. There was standing room only when, one by one, Cecilie Enger, Nina Lykke and Vigdis Hjorth took the floor in front of a fantastic view of Manhattan and the East River.

The Chinese are crazy about Norwegian books. That is the impression we were left with after having visited the book fair in Beijing. Ever since 2010 NORLA has travelled to the book fair in Beijing, Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), which takes place every year in the end of August. This year we were accompanied by four Norwegians: Even Råkil from Oslo Literary Agency, Hans Petter Bakketeig from Stilton Agency, Gina Winje from Winje Agency and Svein Størksen, Magikon Forlag. At the fair energetic work was carried out to present Norwegian books and meet with Chinese publishers to promote the translation of more Norwegian titles into Chinese.

Translators are the most important emissaries we have for bringing Norwegian literature out into the world. Their work is of decisive significance and to spotlight this work, we started the interview series entitled “Translator of the month”. Here we will get to know some of those who translate from Norwegian and learn about their challenging work of transmitting Norwegian literature into all the different languages of the world.

The translator of the month for September is the Czech translator Milada Blekastad (1917 – 2003). She has been a key individual in the translation of literature between Norway and the Czech Republic and her work is now being honoured through the project «The Invisible Bridge. Milada Blekastad (1917 – 2003)».

Read more about Milada Blekastad here (in Norwegian) and here (in Czech).

Gunnhild Øyehaug’s short-story collection Knots (Knutar), published in Norwegian in 2004, has just been published in English by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The book has been skillfully translated by Kari Dickson, and the reception is overwhelming.
James Wood, one of the most influentual literary critics in the USA, describes Gunnhild Øyehaug as «a Norwegian master of the short story» in his enthusiastic review of Knots in the latest edition of The New Yorker.

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. A recent report by Nielsen Book showed that translated literary fiction makes up only 3.5% of the literary fiction titles published in the UK, but accounts for 7% of the volume of sales. Only a tiny fraction of fiction published in English is translated, and only about a quarter of that translated fiction was originally written by women. 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.

See where and when you can meet us here

As of 30 June 2017, NORLA has received 248 Norwegian books that have been published in a total of 41 languages through NORLA’s (and in the Nordic region: The Nordic Council of Ministers’) translation subsidies.

There are 192 fiction publications and 56 non-fiction publications.
And a total of 63 are titles for children and young people.

See the list of the books below.

Translators are the most important emissaries we have for bringing Norwegian literature out into the world. Their work is of decisive significance and to spotlight this work, we started the interview series entitled “Translator of the month”. Here we will get to know some of those who translate from Norwegian and learn about their challenging work of transmitting Norwegian literature into all the different languages of the world.

Read more about Ben here.

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

Morten A. Strøksnes’ award-winning book Shark Drunk (original title: Havboka) has been launched in the US and UK to great acclaim and is receiving starred reviews. The author was recently interviewed in National Geographic, and last week Shark Drunk featured as «Book of the week» in BBC Four.

The book is translated from the Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally. It is published in the US by Penguin Randomhouse and in the UK by Jonathan Cape under its full title; Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark From a Tiny Rubber Dingy in a Big Ocean.

Praise: