The corona pandemic has seriously affected the international book industry. Therefore, it is extra gratifying to see that the there is still a strong interest in Norwegian books and also sales of foreign rights. NORLA has obtained an overview of foreign rights to the Norwegian books sold by agents and publishers in Norway during April and May. There are 150 rights sold or renewed!
On the 25th of September, as part of the celebrations in Oslo marking the feast day of St Jerome, the patron saint of translators, NORLA announced the ninth winner of its Translator’s Award. This award was established in 2007 to draw attention to the efforts of translators in disseminating Norwegian literature abroad. The prize is awarded to an emerging talent in translation and is intended to act as an incentive for further contributions to the promotion of Norwegian literature.
The annual prize is awarded alternately to translators of non-fiction literature and translators of fiction. This year’s prize is awarded for non-fiction.
The winner of the 2014 NORLA Translator’s Award is Diane Oatley, who translates into English. Oatley was born and raised in the USA but has been resident in Norway since 1982
Every year the Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer is one of NORLA’s spring highlights, being the largest literary festival in the Nordic countries. As this year’s festival has gone digital so have NORLA’s two annual Lillehammer seminars for international publishers and translators of Norwegian literature. This year focusing on books for children and young adults. It has been a true pleasure getting to meet both familiar and new friends of literature, in our own living rooms.
We are pleased to share eight films made for the webinars. Here you will meet the authors and illustrators presenting their selected books for young readers. There are books in several genres, techniques, themes and for different age groups. We are confident there are new favorites in store for everyone.
On September 27th, during the celebration of the Patron Saint of Translators, St. Jerome, NORLA announced the recipient of its Translator’s Award 2012.
NORLA offers its warmest congratulations to translator Olga Drobot on her receiving the The Russian Translator’s Society prize for the best translation in 2014. The prize was awarded in December, and Olga Drobot was chosen as the winner in category for prose, for her translation of Rune Belsvik’s Dustefjerten. The book about Dustefjerten, who is named “Prostodursen” in Russian, is published by Samokat Publishing House, through translation subsidies from NORLA.
This time of year we normally set off for Lillehammer to take part in the enjoyable spring adventure which is called the Norwegian festival of Literature. This year, however, the festival goes digital (May 29 – 31) and the events will therefore be available for everyone to enjoy, all around the world!
May’s Translator of the Month is Justė Nepaitė from Lithuania. She mainly translates fiction but also other genres, and her translation of Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle 3 was released in January. Later this year, Jon Fosse’s Scenes from a Childhood / Morning and Evening will be available in her translation. Justė has also translated a number of Norwegian picture books for children, for use among Lithuanian children attending kindergartens in Norway.
In addition to being a translator, Juste has also been a tutor of Norwegian language and culture for a number of years.
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!
NORLA’s pilot schemed for production subsidies for Norwegian picture books and illustrated non-fiction has been extended to the end of 2015.
NORLA is pleased to announce that 2011 saw a substantial increase in the number of applications for translation subsidies. We received a total of 398 applications, out of which 383 were granted support for the translation of Norwegian books into 42 different languages.
“Un libro per l’ambiente” («A Book for the Environment) is awarded to a publication of high literary quality, with an environmental theme. The prize is established by the Italian Association for Nature, with the intention of enhancing reading among elementary school pupils.
Publishers, schools and libraries nominate candidates for the prize. 80 books were nominated, and a group of experts has now chosen Waffle Hearts as one of six finalists.
At NORLA we are pleased about the great interest also this year in our offer for translators who translate directly from Norwegian: the opportunity to apply for two-week stays in Oslo at Hotell Bondeheimen.
There were many good applications also in this round, and we have found ourselves obliged to give priority to applicants who are at work on translation projects this spring which entail a particular need on the part of the translator to be in Norway.
Six out of a total of 31 applicants have received an offer of a stay at the Bondeheimen starting 27 April – and the translators have also been offered work stations at NORLA’s office premises.
Maria Parr’s popular first novel Waffle Hearts is shortlisted for the 2015 Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation and NORLA offers its warmest congratulations to the book’s translator Guy Puzey and to Maria Parr!
The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation seeks to address a situation in the UK in which less than 3% of work published for children and young people has been from the non-English speaking world.
Maria Parr’s children’s novel Adventures with Waffles (original title: Vaffelhjarte) was recently published in the USA, and is now receiving great reviews. The prestigious literary magazine Kirkus says that the novel is “Filled with both rollicking escapades and poignant moments” and that “Parr’s notable tale portrays a young boy’s heartfelt appreciation of family and friends”. Publishers Weekly states that it is a “heartfelt and humorous debut novel”. Adventures with Waffles was recently sold to Latvia, which is the 26th country to publish the book.
At NORLA’s international translators conference on 14-16 May, 150 translators representing 35 different languages outside the Nordic region and some 100 Norwegian authors, speakers, publishers, agents and industry professionals were convened. The conference was an enthusiastic convocation on the subject of the translation of Norwegian literature for three event-packed days at the Holmen fjordhotell outside of Oslo.
The conference was financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it is the second time that NORLA and the Ministry have collaborated on an international conference for translators of Norwegian literature. The last time was in 2009, when 125 translators representing 31 languages attended.
The acclaimed Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet and the Norwegian Festival of Literature has made a decision on who´s the best authors under the age of 35.
The first ‘top 10 under 35’-list was made in 2004, and the chosen authors make up a selection of voices that are still important today.
This time the jury is comprised by associate professor Tonje Vold, authors Jan Kjærstad and Inger Bråtveit, poet and literary critic Espen Stueland and literary critic Bernhard Ellefsen.
The jury states that the list reflects a vital and varied literary culture.
See the list and read the jury’s statement below.
For everybody working at NORLA, sparking the joy of reading is a true privilege. And today we are happy to celebrate World Book Day by recommending books from our selected spring titles.
NORLA congratulates Dag Johan Haugerud on his receiving the 2016 P2-listeners’ Novel Prize for the novel Easy Atonal Pieces for Children (Enkle atonale stykker for barn).
The P2-listeners’ Novel Prize is awarded every year by the Norwegian radio channel NRK P2. The nominated books are chosen by a professional jury, which then narrow the nominations down to a shortlist of six books. From there on in a listener’s jury consisting of six people will discuss the books in a series of radio shows, before announcing the winner.
Read more about Easy Atonal Pieces for Children here.
See previous prize winners here (in Norwegian only).
Translator of the Month for March is Reiko Hidani who translates into Japanese. She’s in the news because her translation of Steffen Kverneland’s Munch has been nominated for Japan’s The Best Translation Award. She has also translated the recently published book What is Economy?, aimed at children and young people and written by Gunhild J. Ecklund.
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.