On the 25th of September, as part of the celebrations in Oslo marking the feast day of St Jerome, the patron saint of translators, NORLA announced the ninth winner of its Translator’s Award. This award was established in 2007 to draw attention to the efforts of translators in disseminating Norwegian literature abroad. The prize is awarded to an emerging talent in translation and is intended to act as an incentive for further contributions to the promotion of Norwegian literature.

The annual prize is awarded alternately to translators of non-fiction literature and translators of fiction. This year’s prize is awarded for non-fiction.

The winner of the 2014 NORLA Translator’s Award is Diane Oatley, who translates into English. Oatley was born and raised in the USA but has been resident in Norway since 1982

NORLA is organising its annual non-fiction seminar in Oslo 23-25 October for translators who translate directly from Norwegian. The seminar will offer an in-depth review of Norwegian non-fiction, the visit of the non-fiction author Yann de Caprona, a text workshop and participation in the Norwegian non-fiction festival (read more in Norwegian here). The festival is organised by NFF (The Norwegian non-fiction writers and translators organisation), it is free of charge and open to the general public.

Attendance of NORLA’s seminar is limited, but this year we invited translators who would like to take part in the seminar and the festival to send a well-founded application (by 8 September) to NORLA c/o adviser Per Øystein Roland. NORLA covers travel, hotel and per diem for the participants during the seminar and festival.
The festival programme is available in Norwegian here.

At NORLA’s international translators conference on 14-16 May, 150 translators representing 35 different languages outside the Nordic region and some 100 Norwegian authors, speakers, publishers, agents and industry professionals were convened. The conference was an enthusiastic convocation on the subject of the translation of Norwegian literature for three event-packed days at the Holmen fjordhotell outside of Oslo.

The conference was financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it is the second time that NORLA and the Ministry have collaborated on an international conference for translators of Norwegian literature. The last time was in 2009, when 125 translators representing 31 languages attended.

NORLA offers its warmest congratulations to author Yulia Horst and illustrator Daria Rychkova. Their picture book Tails Throughout Time (Halens historie) has won the 2014 BolognaRagazzi Award in the category Opera Prima, an award devoted to works by new authors and illustrators.

NORLA congratulates the winners of the 2013 Norwegian Literary Critics’ Prizes for Literature:

NORLA congratulates Agnes Ravatn on her receiving The 2014 P2-listeners’ Novel Prize for the novel The Bird Tribunal (Fugletribunalet).

Norwegian literature abroad is doing extremely well, and NORLA is experiencing a large interest in Norwegian literature, judging from the number of applications for translation subsidies from foreign publishers.

In 2013 NORLA granted subsidies for the translation of 412 Norwegian published titles. This is almost as many as the record year of 2012, when 431 published titles received subsidies from NORLA. The total number of published titles sold to other languages through agents and agencies, however, is far greater, in that many book translations are financed through funding schemes other than those offered by NORLA.

NORLA is, together with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi, very excited to take part in the new initiative – Jaipur BookMark, during the largest free literature festival in the world, Jaipur Literature Festival, January 18-20. Also participating is Norwegian author Jørn Lier Horst.

We are grateful for this unique opportunity to take part, as a country partner, in a very imporant venue for the promotion of literature, translation and publishing. We look forward to exploring more possibilities for Norwegian literature in India through this partnership, and welcome everyone to meet us at the BookMark.

The renowned author Erlend Loe is celebrating his 20th anniversary as an author, and his Norwegian publisher, Cappelen Damm is marking the event by re-publishing several of his novels. Loe is known for his special style of writing, often described as naivistic, with elements of humour and cunning which has captivated readers of all ages the last couple of decades.
Since his debut with the novel Gone with the Woman in 1993 he has written more than twenty novels, children’s books and poetry in reinterpretation. He has also written several screenplays. Loe had his international breakthrough with the much appraised novel Naïve.Super. (1996), and since then his books have been sold to no less than 38 countries!

Click here to see the covers of Loe’s books recently published through NORLA’s translation subsidies.

During the celebration of the Patron Saint of Translators, St. Jerome, in Oslo, NORLA announced the recipient of its Translator’s Award 2013. This year’s winner is Dana Caspi. With her extensive translation of Norwegian literature into Hebrew since 1996, she has made considerable contributions to the dissemination of Norwegian fiction.
Among the Norwegian authors Dana Caspi has translated into Hebrew are Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Lars Saabye Christensen, Jostein Gaarder, Jan Kjærstad, Hanne Ørstavik, Per Petterson, Sigrid Undset, Kjell Askildsen, Jo Nesbø, Karl Ove Knausgård, Gaute Heivoll, Roy Jacobsen, Gabi Gleichmann og Tore Renberg.

We at NORLA send our warmest congratulations to Dana Caspi!

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

1. Prize: Karolina Drozdowska (Poland)

2. Prize: Aude Pasquier (France).

They will perform their causeries at the festival ‘Translated Days’ (Oversatte dager) in Oslo, at the House of Literature, March 1 and 2.
Read more on Karolina Drozdowska
(in Norwegian) here.

Read more on Aude Pasquier
(in Norwegian) here.

On September 27th, during the celebration of the Patron Saint of Translators, St. Jerome, NORLA announced the recipient of its Translator’s Award 2012.