It is our pleasure to be able to share an interview with the children’s book author and illustrator Kari Stai, who recently visited India to attend the children’s book festival Bookaroo in New Delhi and present her books about Jakob and Neikob. The trip received funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ developing nations programme Land i Sør.

Linn Ullmann’s highly praised novel The Cold Song (original title: Det dyrebare) was published in the US in the spring of 2014, and the novel is now appearing on several “Best books of the year”-listings. In The New York Times Book review The Cold Song is one of the “100 notable books of 2014”. The novel is also featured on the Independent Bookstore’s list of the 50 best books of the year, and Kirkus Reviews list of the best fiction of the year.

The book is translated from the Norwegian by Barbara J. Haveland and published through translation subsidy from NORLA.

NORLA congratulates Per Petterson on the enthusiastic praise of his novel I Refuse (Jeg nekter) in the English speaking world.
The Guardian describes the novel as “a masterful study of time”, and also includes it on its list of the best books of the year.
The novel is also chosen as one of the best books of the year by Paul Binding in TLS, Times Literary Supplement.

NORLA started in 2014 a pilot scheme for a translators hotel for translators of Norwegian literature. The scheme has been an unconditional success and will be renewed also in 2015.

All of three Norwegian authors are long-listed for the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2015, based on the votes of librarians from 39 countries. All of us at NORLA congratulate Gaute Heivoll, Ingrid Storholmen and Karl Ove Knausgård (who has been nominated for the third time).

NORLA offers its warmest congratulations to Lars Mytting on his receiving the 2014 Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize. The prize is awarded for his critically acclaimed novel The Flame Birches (original title: Svøm med dem som drukner).

Read more about Mytting (in German) here.

And read more about The Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize and see previous winners here.

The winners are:

Fiction
Rune Christiansen:
The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life
(Ensomheten i Lydia Ernemans liv, Oktober)

Non-fiction
Marte Michelet: The Ulitmate Crime
(Den største forbrytelsen, Gyldendal)

Open class: short stories and essays
Ingvild H. Rishøi: Winter Stories
(Vinternoveller, Gyldendal)

Books for children and young adults
Annette Münch: Badboy: Steroid
(Cappelen Damm)

Honorary award
Author Vigdis Hjort

Read more about the Brage Prize, and see previous winners, here.

Maria Parr’s popular first novel Waffle Hearts is shortlisted for the 2015 Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation and NORLA offers its warmest congratulations to the book’s translator Guy Puzey and to Maria Parr!

The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation seeks to address a situation in the UK in which less than 3% of work published for children and young people has been from the non-English speaking world.

NORLA congratulates the authors Alexander Løken, A. Audhild Solberg, Lars Joachim Grimstad, Tone Almhjell and Arne Svingen on being nominated for The 2014 ARK Children’s Book Award.
The Ark Children’s Book Award is a literary award for the best children’s book of the year. The award was established by the book seller’s chain ARK in 2002. The winner is chosen among five nominated books, which are read and voted for by 10 000 school children. This year’s winner will be announced in December, and the prize is 25,000 NOK and a lithography.

The five nominees are:

NORLA excitedly congratulates the author Håkon Øvreås and illustrator Øyvind Torseter on being awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2014 for their book Brown (Brune).
The charming book has harvested wonderful reviews, several prizes and foreign rights have so far been sold to seven languages.

And the best news is: the author and illustrator are planning more books about the underdog superhero Brown and his friends!

Read more about the book (and a sample translation in English) here.

NORLA offers its warmest congratulations to the eight Norwegian candidates for the 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial award, the world’s largest international children’s and young adult literature award.
The candidates were announced during the Frankfurt Book Fair. 197 candidates from 16 countries were nominated. Among these are eight Norwegian authors/illustrators:

Author Tor Åge Bringsværd
Author Gro Dahle and illustrator Svein Nyhus
Author Harald Rosenløw Eeg
Author Marit Kaldhol
Illustrator Gry Moursund
Author and illustrator Lisa Aisato N’jie Solberg
Illustrator Øyvind Torseter

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