News

Morten A. Strøksnes' "Shark Drunk" making waves in the US and UK

Morten A. Strøksnes’ award-winning book Shark Drunk (original title: Havboka) has been launched in the US and UK to great acclaim and is receiving starred reviews. The author was recently interviewed in National Geographic, and last week Shark Drunk featured as «Book of the week» in BBC Four.

The book is translated from the Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally. It is published in the US by Penguin Randomhouse and in the UK by Jonathan Cape under its full title; Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark From a Tiny Rubber Dingy in a Big Ocean.

Praise:

Upcoming deadline for the translation of Norwegian fiction

We’re back from the holidays, and would like to remind you about tomorrow’s application deadline for the translation of Norwegian fiction.

The autumn batch of New Voices is ready

Last year, NORLA collaborated with Talent Norge and the Norwegian Publishers Association on the New Voices development programme. Recruiting new authors and promoting new literary voices abroad are important aims of the Frankfurt 2019 initiative. New Voices will create a space where parts of Norway’s rich literary undergrowth can be made visible, giving a boost to authors who are on the verge of an international breakthrough. A group of 4-6 new writing voices will take part in the programme every six months.

Summer greetings from our director Margit Walsø and project manager Halldor Gudmundsson

This past spring has been perhaps the most labour-intensive in NORLA’s history. A great deal has happened – particularly when it comes to Norway’s role as guest of honour at Frankfurt 2019:

The Frankfurt team was set up on 1 March, with a project manager, a coordinator for the literary programme and a coordinator for the cultural programme. And the first thing they focused on was presenting a broad range of Norwegian literature for translation to relevant publishers, and setting in motion potential collaborative projects for the cultural programme.

Maike Dörries – Translator of the Month for June and July 2017

The translators are the most important stakeholders we have for bringing Norwegian literature to the world. Their work is of vital importance and to showcase this work in January 2015 we started the interview series «Translator of the Month». Here we become better acquainted with translators from the Norwegian language and their challenging work, which introduces Norwegian literature to all the different languages of the world.

The translator of the month for June and July is Maike Dörries, who translates into German. In June she took part in NORLA’s seminar for translators of literature for children and young people in Lillehammer, and is an extremely experienced translator, with more than 200 titles from Swedish, Danish and Norwegian to her name. In the interview she also mentions that she played a role in the creation of Endre Lund Eriksen’s popular novel for young people Den sommeren pappa ble homo (“That Summer my Dad was Gay”).

First round of New Voices completed

NORLA set up its New Voices programme to help new Norwegian authors reach the international market. The first round is now complete and the first group consisted of Simen Ekern, Roskva Koritzinsky, Nils Henrik Smith and Sigbjørn Mostue.

Letter from Georgia

Georgia has proud literary traditions. Georgian is one of Europe’s oldest written languages and it is said that the country’s national epic, The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, anticipated the European Renaissance by several centuries.
An international book fair takes place in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi every year. In the last week of May, Norway was the fair’s country in focus featuring the four spring-semester participants on NORLA’s New Voices programme.

Miluse Jurickova awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit

Miluše Juřičková was recently awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in the rank of Commander, in recognition of her formidable efforts as both a conveyor of Norwegian literature and culture, as a translator and as a cultural bridge-builder between Norway and the Czech republic.
Juřičková received the order at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Prague from the Norwegian Embassador, Ms Siri Ellen Sletner.
Everyone at NORLA offers her our very warmest congratulations!

Festival Fever in Lillehammer

Norwegian and international publishers, agents, translators and authors gathered at the annual seminar in Lillehammer.

Between 30 May and 4 June, Norway’s biggest literature festival took place in Lillehammer. During the festival, NORLA arranged a seminar for German translators of children’s and YA literature. In collaboration with the Norwegian Publishers Association and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NORLA also invited 18 international children’s book publishers to Oslo and Lillehammer. This is the first time the annual publishers seminar has been entirely devoted to children’s and YA literature.

Norwegian Literature in China – "From Sophie to the World!"

A Norwegian sports and cultural delegation led by Norway’s Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, visited China from 25 to 27 May. The delegation also included the author Jostein Gaarder and NORLA’s director, Margit Walsø.
Jostein Gaarder’s books are very well known to Chinese readers as a total of 16 have already been published in Chinese!
A central part of the delegation’s cultural programme was to renew and strengthen cultural collaboration with China.

On 25 May, ZHANG Fusheng, previously editor of Nordic literature at the People’s Literature Publishing House, was awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by the Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland.