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NORLA, Norwegian Literature Abroad, is starting to implement the project team for the Norwegian Guest of Honour-presentation in 2019.

The first group of participants chosen for NORLA’s development programme for new literary talents – “New Voices” – has been decided. The four names are:
Simen Ekern, Sigbjørn Mostue, Roskva Koritzinsky and Nils Henrik Smith.

During the presentation of the culture report “The Power of Culture,” Trine Skei Grande asserted that cultural policy is freedom of expression’s policy. We at NORLA could not agree more.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest book fair and this year all the Norwegian participants were gathered at a large joint stand, in a reinforced collaboration between the Norwegian Publishers Association, Norwegian agents, NORLA and Norwegian publishers. The stand was a hub of extensive activity and vibrant energy, and it was of course also decorated with many good, beautiful books in all genres.
All seven of NORLA’s staff members took part in the book fair this year for the very first time! This was also NORLA’s 25th anniversary in Frankfurt, an event that was commemorated by a friendly gesture of appreciation from the book fair in the form of a delicious cake delivered to the stand.

The planning of Norway Guest of Honour Frankfurt 2019 is well under way.

Read more about Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019 here.

The most important news item of the spring for Norwegian cultural life was that Norway was named Guest of Honour for the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. In the speech given by the Minister of Culture in conjunction with the signing of the agreement, she emphasized that Norway has hereby acquired a unique position for the internationalization of Norwegian literature and culture through the book fair’s strong position in the important German market and worldwide. The Guest of Honour project provides great opportunities for Norwegian authors and for increasing the export of literature in the coming years. The book trade’s combined investment will be crucial and Norwegian Book Day in June clearly demonstrated that the industry is prepared to make the most of this opportunity. Activities commence now. NORLA’s talent development programme for new literary voices within all genres will start up in the autumn, in collaboration with Talent Norway and the Norwegian Publishers Association.

There was joy and enthusiasm all around in the National Theatre in Oslo on 12 May 2016, as the agreement between the Frankfurter Buchmesse and NORLA, Norwegian Literature Abroad, was signed and officially confirming Norway as Guest of Honour at the book fair in 2019.
NORLA’s director Margit Walsø welcomed an enthusiastic audience and revealed that NORLA has been working towards the realization of the Guest of Honour project for about three years.
The Norwegian Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, held an enthusiastic speech welcoming this unique opportunity for Norwegian literature and culture to make an even bigger impression abroad. She also encouraged more privat sponsors to seize the opportunity to come aboard, to make the most of the project’s fantastic possibilities of Norwegian branding abroad.

Seven Norwegian businesses have been chosen to participate in the export program “Literature Go Global”.

On 12 May at 2 PM, in the lobby of the National Theatre in Oslo, NORLA’s Director Margit Walsø and Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Director Juergen Boos signed the agreement confirming Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019.

There’s been quite a lot of activity at NORLA over the last month, with many great meetings both at home and abroad! We would like to share some photos and briefly inform you about the various events that have taken place.

2015 has been a fantastic year for Norwegian literature abroad and an exciting year for NORLA. We have worked intensively to lay the foundation to enable Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. We are pleased that this initiative has met with overwhelming support from the Storting. When the broad engagement on the part of the book industry now receives the whole-hearted support of the Government and the Storting, we have a fantastic starting point for a Norwegian application for Guest of Honour status. The Storting’s decision to back the application with NOK 30 million creates an exceptional opportunity to make a large investment in the export of Norwegian literature and culture, and we thank everyone who has contributed to our having come this far in the application process.

Since the autumn of 2014 NORLA has worked intensively to lay the foundation to enable Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. We are pleased that this initiative was met with overwhelming support from the Storting, says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.

Norway’s Minister of Culture Thorhild Widvey visited this year’s book fair in Frankfurt and had the opportunity to experience the level of activity at the world’s most important international literary arena. She met the book fair’s management, representatives from different guest nations and not least Norwegian publishers and agents. Widvey expressed how impressed she was with how we present Norwegian literature and especially appreciated seeing that so much good work is being done for children’s and young people’s literature.

For over a year NORLA has worked towards enabling Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the book fair in 2019. The government views this endeavour as a means of expanding the export of Norwegian culture and will ask the Norwegian Storting to pledge up to NOK 25 million. This still falls short on the part of the government of the amount of NOK 33 million applied for by NORLA. The total budget is NOK 55 million.

In 2019, Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest and most important meeting place for literature. The project has been broadly supported by both public and private funding, it recently gained several new partners and is now almost fully financed.

For more than one year NORLA has been working towards enabling Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt book fair in 2019. Last week the happy news arrived that the Norwegian government views this endeavour as a measure towards increasing the export of Norwegian culture and will ask the Norwegian Parliament to pledge NOK 25 million.
Margit Walsø, Director of NORLA, states: "With this pledge a significant portion of the funding can be in place, but we are not there yet.