Lillehammer goes digital
Due to the corona virus pandemic, the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer has made substantial changes to it’s original plans and programming.
Due to the corona virus pandemic, the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer has made substantial changes to it’s original plans and programming.
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 offers its warmest congratulations to the eight Norwegian candidates for the 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial award, the world’s largest international children’s and young adult literature award.
The candidates were announced during the Frankfurt Book Fair. 197 candidates from 16 countries were nominated. Among these are eight Norwegian authors/illustrators:
Author Tor Åge Bringsværd
Author Gro Dahle and illustrator Svein Nyhus
Author Harald Rosenløw Eeg
Author Marit Kaldhol
Illustrator Gry Moursund
Author and illustrator Lisa Aisato N’jie Solberg
Illustrator Øyvind Torseter
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.
NORLA congratulates the authors Alexander Løken, A. Audhild Solberg, Lars Joachim Grimstad, Tone Almhjell and Arne Svingen on being nominated for The 2014 ARK Children’s Book Award.
The Ark Children’s Book Award is a literary award for the best children’s book of the year. The award was established by the book seller’s chain ARK in 2002. The winner is chosen among five nominated books, which are read and voted for by 10 000 school children. This year’s winner will be announced in December, and the prize is 25,000 NOK and a lithography.
The five nominees are:
NORLA congratulates the winners of the 2013 Norwegian Literary Critics’ Prizes for Literature:
The renowned author Erlend Loe is celebrating his 20th anniversary as an author, and his Norwegian publisher, Cappelen Damm is marking the event by re-publishing several of his novels. Loe is known for his special style of writing, often described as naivistic, with elements of humour and cunning which has captivated readers of all ages the last couple of decades.
Since his debut with the novel Gone with the Woman in 1993 he has written more than twenty novels, children’s books and poetry in reinterpretation. He has also written several screenplays. Loe had his international breakthrough with the much appraised novel Naïve.Super. (1996), and since then his books have been sold to no less than 38 countries!
Click here to see the covers of Loe’s books recently published through NORLA’s translation subsidies.
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!
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.
NORLA excitedly congratulates the author Håkon Øvreås and illustrator Øyvind Torseter on being awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2014 for their book Brown (Brune).
The charming book has harvested wonderful reviews, several prizes and foreign rights have so far been sold to seven languages.
And the best news is: the author and illustrator are planning more books about the underdog superhero Brown and his friends!
Read more about the book (and a sample translation in English) here.
The winners are:
Fiction
Rune Christiansen:
The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life
(Ensomheten i Lydia Ernemans liv, Oktober)
Non-fiction
Marte Michelet: The Ulitmate Crime
(Den største forbrytelsen, Gyldendal)
Open class: short stories and essays
Ingvild H. Rishøi: Winter Stories
(Vinternoveller, Gyldendal)
Books for children and young adults
Annette Münch: Badboy: Steroid
(Cappelen Damm)
Honorary award
Author Vigdis Hjort
Read more about the Brage Prize, and see previous winners, here.
NORLA and the Norwegian Embassy in Turkey recently arranged, for the first time, a seminar for translators and publishers in Istanbul!
Read the report by NORLA’s Senior Adviser, Oliver Møystad, below.
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!