Søk etter “2019”

Last week, the international book industry was gathered in Leipzig – and the Norwegian presence was the largest ever! 13 Norwegian authors met their readers at dozens of events, NORLA hosted a translation seminar, and the starting gun was fired for our German bookstore strategy in the build up to Norway as Guest Of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019.

Below is a selection of photos from some of the many highlights at this year’s book fair in Leipzig. We look forward to more!

Read more (in German) in Börsenblatt.

Innovation Norway is launching a new export program in cooperation with NORLA, which will assist literary agents in selling more Norwegian literature abroad.

As part of the government’s commitment to the cultural and creative industries, Innovation Norway has been commissioned to implement an export program for Norwegian literary agents in cooperation with NORLA. Literature Go Global (Litteratur ut i verden) will contribute to strengthening Norwegian literature’s competitiveness in international markets; building solid agencies that can represent Norwegian authors internationally; and make use of the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair, as a strategic arena for selling Norwegian literature.

April has been an eventful month. Some of the highlights were the visit from the Frankfurt Book Fair, the press conference where the project’s new partners were presented and the jury meetings for evaluating the incoming design proposals for the Guest of Honour Pavilion. May will include visits from publishers and a press trip in connection with the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer and further development of the literary program.

The last six months have been filled with activities in connection with the Frankfurt project and NORLA’s core efforts. Publisher and translator seminars, expert visits from curators, and press tours are just some of the things that have taken place over the last few months. We’re looking forward to the autumn! The highlight will be when Norway receives the Guest Scroll from Georgia during the book fair in Frankfurt in October. This will mark the official start of our year as Guest of Honour!

On the eve of the London International Book Fair, the New Voices took part in a publisher’s seminar at Free Word Centre in London.

Marianne Kaurin, Jan Kristoffer Dale, Tore Skeie and Bår Stenvik presented themselves and their authorship to an interested audience of British publishers. (See the presentations by clicking on their names).
The seminar was organized by NORLA in collaboration with The Norwegian Embassy in London.

Spring as Guest of Honour has been rich, hectic and fun! Some of the highlights being the book fair in Leipzig featuring 18 authors and 40 events; Berlinale, where Norway was the partner country at the European Film Market (EFM); jazzahead! in Bremen which included 117 musicians from Norway; the German-Norwegian literature festival in Oslo with the German press; and The Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer with German booksellers and journalists, international publishers and translators.

Leipziger Buchmesse is an important venue for encounters between writers and their readers – and a unique arena for cosplay. In connection to Siri Pettersen’s Raven Rings trilogy we organised a cosplay competition in Norway. Now the winner has been selected.

The Translator of the Month for February is the comparative literary scholar, editor and translator Johanna Domokos. She is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts at Károli University in Budapest, and the coordinator of the Translation and Book Production Laboratory at the University of Bielefeld’s Faculty of Language and Literature. Together with her students – who studied Sámi language just for the projects- she published about a dozen books of Sámi and Nordic literature in German, English. For the 2019 Bookf Fair in Frankfurt together with Chsritine Schlosser and Michael Riessler they publish the first comprehensive anthology of Sami poetry translated into German. Their work is supported by NORLA.

We look forward to all the meetings and experiences ahead!
There are many highlights ahead, both in Norway and abroad, in our Guest of Honour year at the Frankfurter Buchmesse.
Below we have listed some of the activites that will take place in the months to come.

Norwegian literature abroad is growing. In 2018, NORLA granted support for the translation of 639 books by Norwegian authors, into 45 languages. Making 2018 the best year there has ever been for Norwegian literature in translation.

– Never, in NORLA’s 40-year history, have so many titles been granted translation support, says Margit Walsø, NORLA’s director.

Georg Grosz meets Mulysses at Slush Mountain
Modern illustration from Norway

2019 is Norway’s year as Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse, and the first event in this Guest of Honour year will be the touring exhibition "Georg Grosz meets Mulysses on Slush Mountain. Modern illustration from Norway.” The exhibition will open at Felleshuset, at the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin, on January 23rd.

In January, we were very excited to start Norway’s Guest of Honour year ahead of the Frankfurter Buchmesse by offering a brand new series: Poems of the Week, all through 2019!
The poems are available both in English and German translations – as well as in Norwegian – at our Guest of Honour website norway2019.com.

Next year, Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Bringing forth new literary voices internationally is an important goal of the initiative. NORLA has entered into the development program, New Voices, in collaboration with Talent Norway and the Norwegian Publishers’ Association.

Group 5 of New Voices consists of the following authors:

The most important year for Norwegian literature abroad is approaching fast. We look back upon a year of preparations, new friends and experiences. 2018 has been a fantastic prelude to 2019!

December’s translator of the month is Martin Aitken, from England. His very first literary translation from the Norwegian was “My Struggle” by Karl Ove Knausgård, together with Don Bartlett!
Martin was recently shortlisted for the coveted National Book Awards in the US for his translation of Hanne Ørstavik’s novel Love. And now they are long-listed in the PEN America Literary Awards 2019 for best translation!
His most recent translation is the children’s book Estragon’s Stories. The Rat Catcher of Sorø, written by Gaute Heivoll and illustrated by John Kenn Mortensen, which he has translated into Danish(!). Martin has also translated an impressive number of Danish novelists.

Our translator of the month for October is Frank Zuber from Germany, who is a highly engaged ambassador for Norwegian literature in Germany, in several genres.

During the Frankfurt Book Fair, Frank was awarded NORLA’s Translator ’s Award for 2018 by Norway’s Culture Minister, Trine Skei Grande. He has received the award for his efforts in translating Norwegian non-fiction.
(More about the award here).

Read more about Frank here.

Here you will find details on a l l of our upcoming events.

See our pictures that prove it here!

In September we have had visits from 20 German booksellers here in Oslo. During the visits representatives met with authors, illustrators and Norwegian bookstores, and were given an introduction to the Norwegian literary system, among other things. The program has shown the breadth of Norwegian literature and there was a great deal of engagement from the bookselleres during the visits. This is an important part of our strategic cooperation, which may be crucial for getting Norwegian books under Christmas trees in 2019.

What a wonderful week!

We are looking back on days filled with exciting meetings and events at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2018. After Sunday’s Handover Ceremony, Norway officially is Guest of Honour.
See pictures below for highlights of our week and interesting people we met.