Maria Parr’s celebrated novel Waffle Hearts is on the shortlist for the Italian literary award Premio Strega ragazze e ragazzi (for readers 6+). The award is one of Italy’s most popular literary awards and the award ceremony will be held during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2016.
The Italian edition of the book has already received several other awards; Il Premio Andersen and Super Premio – Libro dell’anno 2015.
2015 will be an historical year for the dissemination of Norwegian literature in China and Taiwan. All of 18 Norwegian books will be published in Chinese this year. And 11 of these are books for children/young people.
“Increasingly more Norwegian titles are being published in China and Taiwan and this is an exciting development. We have great ambitions for increased export,” says NORLA’s Director Margit Walsø.
Next year 215 candidates from 59 countries will be in the running for the ALMA Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The ALMA Award is the world’s largest international children’s and young adult literature award. The award amounts to SEK 5 million and is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible for the award, which is designed to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature.
NORLA took part along with the NordLit network from the Nordic countries in this year’s Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair in China, 13-15 November 2015, for the very first time. The book fair proved very successful as the interest for Norwegian books was massive – with a wonderful buzz around the launch of Håkon Øvreås and Øyvind Torseter’s award-winning book “Brune”.
Earlier this week German translator Hinrich Scmidt-Henkel was awarded the Eugen Helmlé Award in Sulzbach in Saarland and NORLA congratulates him warmly!
The winners are:
As of 31 August 2015, NORLA has received 251 Norwegian books that have been published in a total of 45 languages through NORLA’s (and in the Nordic region: The Nordic Council of Ministers’) translation subsidies.
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.
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.
NORLA started in 2014 a pilot scheme for a translators hotel for translators of Norwegian literature. It was an unconditional success and therefore renewed also in 2015, with both a Spring and an Autumn season.
Author and illustrator Kristin Roskifte took part in the children’s literature festival Bookaroo, in New Delhi, December 1st and 2nd, 2018.
We have been fortunate enough to get a postcard from her. Read it here:
As of 15 June 2015, NORLA has received 204 Norwegian books that have been published in a total of 41 languages through NORLA’s (and in the Nordic region: The Nordic Council of Ministers’) translation subsidies.
Today, the Norwegian Minister of Culture, Trine Skei Grande, awarded the prestigious 2018 Ministry of Culture’s literary prizes for children and young adult literature published in 2018.
A total of NOK 415,000 were awarded in eight different categories for children’s and YA literature; Best Fiction Book, Best Picture Book, Best Non-fiction Book, First Book Award, Best graphic novel/Cartoon, The Illustration Award, The Translation Award and The Special Award.
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.
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.
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.