2015 will be an historical year for the dissemination of Norwegian literature in China and Taiwan. All of 18 Norwegian books will be published in Chinese this year. And 11 of these are books for children/young people.

“Increasingly more Norwegian titles are being published in China and Taiwan and this is an exciting development. We have great ambitions for increased export,” says NORLA’s Director Margit Walsø.

Maria Parr’s celebrated novel Waffle Hearts is on the shortlist for the Italian literary award Premio Strega ragazze e ragazzi (for readers 6+). The award is one of Italy’s most popular literary awards and the award ceremony will be held during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2016.
The Italian edition of the book has already received several other awards; Il Premio Andersen and Super Premio – Libro dell’anno 2015.

Norway’s Minister of Culture Thorhild Widvey visited this year’s book fair in Frankfurt and had the opportunity to experience the level of activity at the world’s most important international literary arena. She met the book fair’s management, representatives from different guest nations and not least Norwegian publishers and agents. Widvey expressed how impressed she was with how we present Norwegian literature and especially appreciated seeing that so much good work is being done for children’s and young people’s literature.

For over a year NORLA has worked towards enabling Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the book fair in 2019. The government views this endeavour as a means of expanding the export of Norwegian culture and will ask the Norwegian Storting to pledge up to NOK 25 million. This still falls short on the part of the government of the amount of NOK 33 million applied for by NORLA. The total budget is NOK 55 million.

Next year 215 candidates from 59 countries will be in the running for the ALMA Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The ALMA Award is the world’s largest international children’s and young adult literature award. The award amounts to SEK 5 million and is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible for the award, which is designed to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature.

During the celebration of the patron saint of translators, St. Jerome, on 01 October in Oslo, NORLA’s translator’s award was announced for the tenth time. The award is given annually to a translator of Norwegian literature and was established to bring into the public eye the contribution foreign translators make to Norwegian literature. The award shall go to a young translation talent and is intended to encourage a continued investment in Norwegian literature.