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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.

We are very much looking forward to a packed Autumn, the highlight being Frankfurter Buchmesse. From then on we will officially be Guest of Honour! We are also looking forward to visits in Norway from German booksellers; putting the final touches to our literature and cultural programs; and travelling far and wide to promote Norwegian literature and art as part of the Frankfurt project.

Week 37 was the week for Norwegian literary events in New York. On Thursday 14 October, Norwegian authors were introduced to American publishers in the residence of the Norwegian consulate general. There was standing room only when, one by one, Cecilie Enger, Nina Lykke and Vigdis Hjorth took the floor in front of a fantastic view of Manhattan and the East River.

As of today, only 452 days remain until 1 January 2019. Starting on this day, Norway has Guest of Honour status in connection with the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019. Throughout the entirety of 2019 Norwegian literature and culture will be spotlighted in Germany. How we look forward to this!

Foreign publishers have requested a comprehensive website containing information in English about Norwegian titles. In accordance with the objectives of the Frankfurt project, NORLA has responded to this challenge and created the website Books from Norway.

One important aim when Norway is guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019 will be the promotion and highlighting of Norwegian children’s and YA literature – which is among the best we have to offer!
NORLA has set up a brainstorming group to help us come up with great ideas about what we can and should do to make as much as possible out of the whole event; it will be holding its inaugural meeting today!

The participants are:
Kristin Jobraaten (Ena publishing), Taran L. Bjørnstad (NBU, Norwegian Writers For Children), Birgitte Eek (NBI, The Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books), Harald Rosenløw Eeg, Bjørn F. Rørvik and Stian Hole. Heading the group is NORLA’s Andrine Pollen, Coordinator Literary Programme Frankfurt 2019.

We are looking forward to cooperating with this great group and establishing wonderful ideas for the guest of honour program for children and young adults.

When you visit Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time, it’s handy to go along with colleagues who’ve already been there before. And it’s particularly handy to be there with colleagues who are very tall or who dash around in colourful, polka-dotted coats that make them easy to spot in a crowd. Because the site of the fair is just as enormous as everybody told you, it’s full to the brim with publishing people from all over the world – and the tempo is higher than you could ever have imagined.

Now that things have calmed down after the Frankfurt Book Fair we are busy harvesting the fruits of a hectic week of meetings, idea development and establishing collaborations in preparation for Frankfurt 2019. In just a year’s time it will happen: Norway will take over the role as Guest of Honour after Georgia and we will embark on the most important year ever in the history of the export of Norwegian literature.

In 2019, Norway will be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The project is Norway’s largest commitment to cultural-export, ever. As part of the Guest of Honour project, NORLA, in cooperation with The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DOGA), will launch an open architecture competition for the design of an indoor pavilion, which will be 2300 sqm. The competition was announced January 12 2018.

NORLA is collaborating with Talent Norway and The Norwegian Publishers’ Association, on the talent development programme, New Voices.

The idea is that engagement with foreign business and readers will contribute to an awareness of, and open up new perspectives on, the participant’s own authorship. NORLA will also make provisions so that the programme can contribute towards new international opportunities and make the participants better equipped to present their books internationally over a long-term.

The Norwegian foreign missions have an important role in the Frankfurt project. The Embassy in Rome is one of the foreign missions who are doing their part to put Norwegian literature on the international agenda.

What does literature do for its readers? Good literature opens both hearts and doors. To quote Olav H. Hauges most famous poem, It is that dream: “that one morning we’ll glide into a cove we didn’t know.” We dream of something similar for Norwegian literature. Through our project – Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019 – we want Norwegian literature to open hearts and doors for its foreign readers.

In 2019 Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Norwegian literature abroad will become increasingly visible leading up to the Guest of Honour year, and this applies to other book fairs and festivals in Germany and internationally. This year, Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit will visit the Leipzig Book Fair, as ambassador for Norwegian literature abroad. A total of 13 Norwegian authors will meet their German readers there! The Norwegian program can be found at the bottom of the page.

This year’s figures from NORLA are clear – 2017 was another record year for Norwegian literature abroad. Never before has NORLA provided support for so many translations of Norwegian authors.

In 2017, NORLA granted support for the translation of 538 books by Norwegian authors, into 44 languages. That makes 2017 the best year ever for Norwegian literature in translation.
– 2017 remains a record year for Norwegian literature abroad. Never before have so many titles been granted translation support from NORLA, says Margit Walsø, NORLA’s director.

In 2019 Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The project involves hundreds of literary and cultural programs in Germany throughout 2019 and culminates at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2019. NORLA and the Frankfurt team, together with a number of partners, will be using 2018 to ensure that Norway makes the most of our Guest of Honour year!

The website Books from Norway provides foreign publishers and journalists information, in English, about Norwegian literature as well as an overview of Norwegian translators. NORLA and our partners recently celebrated that the website, at the end of 2017, consisted of over 1000 titles and 150 translator profiles.

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.