The most important news item of the spring for Norwegian cultural life was that Norway was named Guest of Honour for the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. In the speech given by the Minister of Culture in conjunction with the signing of the agreement, she emphasized that Norway has hereby acquired a unique position for the internationalization of Norwegian literature and culture through the book fair’s strong position in the important German market and worldwide. The Guest of Honour project provides great opportunities for Norwegian authors and for increasing the export of literature in the coming years. The book trade’s combined investment will be crucial and Norwegian Book Day in June clearly demonstrated that the industry is prepared to make the most of this opportunity. Activities commence now. NORLA’s talent development programme for new literary voices within all genres will start up in the autumn, in collaboration with Talent Norway and the Norwegian Publishers Association.

Upon the signing of the agreement between NORLA and Frankfurter Buchmesse for Norway as Guest of Honour at the Book Fair in 2019, the talent programme for young authors in Norway was confirmed. The development programme for new author talents will be organized through a collaborative agreement with Talent Norway (Talent Norge). The Norwegian Publishers Association will also contribute generously to the programme.

Recruitment is an important aspect of the work of Norway as Guest of Honour and Margit Walsø, NORLA’s director, emphasizes that cultivating new literary voices internationally is an important goal of the Frankfurt initiative. The long-term timeframe leading up to 2019 and the collaboration with Talent Norge will provide the opportunity to flush out unknown talents from Norway’s abundant literary underbrush.

In the years leading up to 2019, 20-30 authors will receive an offer of participation in a development programme focusing on the international aspects of the author profession. The programme will facilitate development through the exchange of experiences, travel, lectures, activities and network building.

Jørn Lier Horst is the winner of the Petrona Award 2016 for ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year’ for his novel The Caveman. NORLA offers its warmest congratulations!

There was joy and enthusiasm all around in the National Theatre in Oslo on 12 May 2016, as the agreement between the Frankfurter Buchmesse and NORLA, Norwegian Literature Abroad, was signed and officially confirming Norway as Guest of Honour at the book fair in 2019.
NORLA’s director Margit Walsø welcomed an enthusiastic audience and revealed that NORLA has been working towards the realization of the Guest of Honour project for about three years.
The Norwegian Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, held an enthusiastic speech welcoming this unique opportunity for Norwegian literature and culture to make an even bigger impression abroad. She also encouraged more privat sponsors to seize the opportunity to come aboard, to make the most of the project’s fantastic possibilities of Norwegian branding abroad.

On 12 May at 2 PM, in the lobby of the National Theatre in Oslo, NORLA’s Director Margit Walsø and Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Director Juergen Boos signed the agreement confirming Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019.

At NORLA, we offer our very warmest congratulations to Lars Mytting on his international bestseller Norwegian Wood being awarded the British Book Industry Award as best Non-Fiction book 2016!

Norwegian authors and NORLA were recently in Japan and were greeted with an overwhelming interest in Norwegian literature. On 6−10 March, there was a seminar on Norwegian literature, organized in collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo. The seminar was designed for publishers and translators, and was about crime fiction, children’s and picture books, and translation.

The Norwegian participants were author Jørn Lier Horst, author and illustrator Mari Kanstad Johnsen, translator Anne-Lande Peters, publisher Svein Størksen (Magikon) and literature agent Hans Petter Bakketeig (Stilton Literary Agency), along with NORLA’s Director Margit Walsø and NORLA’s Senior Adviser Dina Roll-Hansen.
The programme also included eminent Japanese participants, who gave presentations or took part as moderators.

At April 19, NORLA had the pleasure of welcoming four new translators to Oslo for the fourth season of our translators hotel at Hotell Bondeheimen:
Rositsa G. Tsvetanova (Bulgarian), Sofija Vukovic (Serbian), Martin Aitken (British) and Olga Drobot (Russian).

We look forward to spending the next two weeks in their company!

The Gyldendal Prize is a publisher’s prize of 400,000 NOK, awarded annually by Norwegian publishing house Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.

We invite you to take a closer look at our selected titles for the spring of 2016 here.

You may also find selected titles from previous years, so called “Backlists”, in different genres here.

During 2015 NORLA received a record-breaking 392 Norwegian books that have been published in a total of 47 languages made possible by translation subsidies from NORLA (and within the Nordic countries: from the Nordic Council of Ministers).
This surpasses even last year’s all-time high.

See all Norwegian books published abroad in 2015 through funding below.