Søk etter “2019”

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!

The Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019 presented its extensive cultural programme, the concept for the Guest of Honour Pavilion and the list of authors who will attend the fair. Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess Mette-Marit will travel across Germany on a literary train tour in collaboration with Deutsche Bahn AG. Erika Fatland and Karl Ove Knausgård will speak at the fair’s opening ceremony.

Norway is Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. 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. The program will create a space for highlighting areas of the rich literary underground.

In our announcement text to Norwegian publishing editors you will find all the details about the New Voices program.

Group 4 of New Voices consists of the following authors:

From May 28th – June 3rd, the Nordic region’s largest literary festival took place in Lillehammer. During the festival, NORLA arranged a seminar for translators who work with translating fiction from Norwegian into English, French, Dutch and Polish. NORLA also invited several international publishers and scouts to Oslo and Lillehammer (in cooperation with the Publishers’ Association and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Participants came from Great Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
A group of German journalists and influencers also visited Norway in connection with the festival.

In 2019, Norway will be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. As Guest of Honour, Norway will have a 2300 m2 indoor pavilion. In January, NORLA, in collaboration with The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DOGA) and The Norwegian Architectural Association (NAL), announced an open plan and design contest for the design of the pavilion. 66 applications were approved for further judgment. The results of the competition have now been released.

We look forward to the many activities coming up this autumn!
First, the book fair in Beijing was held last week, where NORLA participated for the ninth consecutive year.
We also attended the Haugesund Film Festival, where we participated in the seminar Books from Haugesund for the second year in a row.
This week the fourth batch of writers began our author program New Voices. The five participants will attend events all around Europe throughout autumn – some will also visit Japan.

Would you like to work with literature and be part of Norway’s largest cultural export project ever? Are you well organized and fond of writing?

As an intern at NORLA you will get a foot in the door in the Norwegian literary sphere and useful experience in project management as well as communication and PR. The position is suitable for a student or graduate who is fluent in German and English and is looking to obtain experience.
Working hours are flexible within 3 days a week for a limited period of time during autumn 2018. The place of work is Oslo.

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.

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.

See our pictures that prove it here!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.