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.

NORLA has formed an agreement with Talent Norway (Talent Norge) on a recruitment programme for Norwegian authors. The programme will be a part of Norway’s investment in Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019 and the agreement is effective under the condition that Norway is named Guest of Honour.

In 2015 NORLA received all of 451 applications for translation subsidies, the largest number of applications in NORLA’s history. Out of these NORLA awarded subsidies to 431 publications of Norwegian books for translation into 46 different languages. This is the same number of allocations as in the record year of 2012.
It is particularly impressive that a total of 114 of NORLA’s awarded translation subsidies went to books for children and young people, an auspicious increase from last year’s record of 100 subsidies granted.

The longlist for the prestigious Dutch 2016 European Literature Prize (Europese Literatuurprijs) was recently revealed and there are TWO Norwegian novels on the list:

Lars Mytting’s The Flame Birches
(original title: Svøm med dem som drukner),
translated from the Norwegian by Paula Stevens,

and

Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle. Book six
(original title: Min kamp. Sjette bok),
translated from the Norwegian by Marianne Molenaar.

Congratulations to both the authors and the translators!

The shortlist will be announced June 8.

We are happy to congratulate the two winners of NORLA’s causerie competition for translators:

1. Prize: Éva Dobos (translates into Hungarian)

2. Prize (shared): Katarzyna Tunkiel (Poland)

2. Prize (shared): Daniela Syczek (Austria)

NORLA congratulates Linn Ullmann on her receiving The 2015 P2-listeners’ Novel Prize for the novel The Register of Disquiet (De urolige).

NORLA annually hands out an award to a translator of Norwegian literature. The award is given for translations directly from Norwegian.
In 2016, the award will be given to a talented young translator of non-fiction as an encouragement towards continued efforts.

We would very much like to hear from you about deserving candidates!

This winter and spring, NORLA’s staff look forward to attending several book fairs, events and literary festivals around the world. See detailed list for our activities planned January through March here.

Feel free to contact us to schedule a meeting.

We hope to see you!

2015 has been a fantastic year for Norwegian literature abroad and an exciting year for NORLA. We have worked intensively to lay the foundation to enable Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. We are pleased that this initiative has met with overwhelming support from the Storting. When the broad engagement on the part of the book industry now receives the whole-hearted support of the Government and the Storting, we have a fantastic starting point for a Norwegian application for Guest of Honour status. The Storting’s decision to back the application with NOK 30 million creates an exceptional opportunity to make a large investment in the export of Norwegian literature and culture, and we thank everyone who has contributed to our having come this far in the application process.

Since the autumn of 2014 NORLA has worked intensively to lay the foundation to enable Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. We are pleased that this initiative was met with overwhelming support from the Storting, says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.