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Norwegian and international publishers, agents, translators and authors gathered at the annual seminar in Lillehammer.

Between 30 May and 4 June, Norway’s biggest literature festival took place in Lillehammer. During the festival, NORLA arranged a seminar for German translators of children’s and YA literature. In collaboration with the Norwegian Publishers Association and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NORLA also invited 18 international children’s book publishers to Oslo and Lillehammer. This is the first time the annual publishers seminar has been entirely devoted to children’s and YA literature.

At NORLA we’d like to celebrate Waffle Day (Vaffelens dag) by sharing our best Waffle booktip:

A Norwegian sports and cultural delegation led by Norway’s Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, visited China from 25 to 27 May. The delegation also included the author Jostein Gaarder and NORLA’s director, Margit Walsø.
Jostein Gaarder’s books are very well known to Chinese readers as a total of 16 have already been published in Chinese!
A central part of the delegation’s cultural programme was to renew and strengthen cultural collaboration with China.

On 25 May, ZHANG Fusheng, previously editor of Nordic literature at the People’s Literature Publishing House, was awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by the Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland.

The translators are the most important stakeholders we have for bringing Norwegian literature to the world. Their work is of vital importance and to showcase this work in January 2015 we started the interview series «​Translator of the Month​»​​. Here we become better acquainted with translators from the Norwegian language and their challenging work, which introduces Norwegian literature to all the different languages of the world.​​

The translator of the month for June and July is Maike D​ö​rries, who translates into German. In June she took part in NORLA​’​s seminar for translators of literature for children and young people in Lillehammer, and is an extremely experienced translator, with more than 200 titles from Swedish, Danish and Norwegian to her name. In the interview she also mentions that she played a role in the creation of Endre Lund Eriksen​’​s popular novel for young people Den sommeren pappa ble homo (​“​That Summer my Dad was Gay​”​).​​

NORLA set up its New Voices programme to help new Norwegian authors reach the international market. The first round is now complete and the first group consisted of Simen Ekern, Roskva Koritzinsky, Nils Henrik Smith and Sigbjørn Mostue.

This past spring has been perhaps the most labour-intensive in NORLA’s history. A great deal has happened – particularly when it comes to Norway’s role as guest of honour at Frankfurt 2019:

The Frankfurt team was set up on 1 March, with a project manager, a coordinator for the literary programme and a coordinator for the cultural programme. And the first thing they focused on was presenting a broad range of Norwegian literature for translation to relevant publishers, and setting in motion potential collaborative projects for the cultural programme.

We are very much looking forward to a packed Autumn, the highlight being Frankfurter Buchmesse. From then on we will officially be Guest of Honour! We are also looking forward to visits in Norway from German booksellers; putting the final touches to our literature and cultural programs; and travelling far and wide to promote Norwegian literature and art as part of the Frankfurt project.

As of 30 June 2017, NORLA has received 248 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.

There are 192 fiction publications and 56 non-fiction publications.
And a total of 63 are titles for children and young people.

See the list of the books below.

The Chinese are crazy about Norwegian books. That is the impression we were left with after having visited the book fair in Beijing. Ever since 2010 NORLA has travelled to the book fair in Beijing, Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), which takes place every year in the end of August. This year we were accompanied by four Norwegians: Even Råkil from Oslo Literary Agency, Hans Petter Bakketeig from Stilton Agency, Gina Winje from Winje Agency and Svein Størksen, Magikon Forlag. At the fair energetic work was carried out to present Norwegian books and meet with Chinese publishers to promote the translation of more Norwegian titles into Chinese.

Week 37 was the week for Norwegian literary events in New York. On Thursday 14 October, Norwegian authors were introduced to American publishers in the residence of the Norwegian consulate general. There was standing room only when, one by one, Cecilie Enger, Nina Lykke and Vigdis Hjorth took the floor in front of a fantastic view of Manhattan and the East River.

In conjunction with the celebration of the Feast of St. Jerome on 28 September in Oslo, NORLA’s Translator’s Award was conferred for the twelfth time.

The award is given annually to a translator of Norwegian literature and was established to spotlight the contribution made by foreign translators to Norwegian literature. The award shall go to a translation talent and is intended as measure to encourage the ongoing investment in Norwegian literature.

One important aim when Norway is guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019 will be the promotion and highlighting of Norwegian children’s and YA literature – which is among the best we have to offer!
NORLA has set up a brainstorming group to help us come up with great ideas about what we can and should do to make as much as possible out of the whole event; it will be holding its inaugural meeting today!

The participants are:
Kristin Jobraaten (Ena publishing), Taran L. Bjørnstad (NBU, Norwegian Writers For Children), Birgitte Eek (NBI, The Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books), Harald Rosenløw Eeg, Bjørn F. Rørvik and Stian Hole. Heading the group is NORLA’s Andrine Pollen, Coordinator Literary Programme Frankfurt 2019.

We are looking forward to cooperating with this great group and establishing wonderful ideas for the guest of honour program for children and young adults.

When you visit Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time, it’s handy to go along with colleagues who’ve already been there before. And it’s particularly handy to be there with colleagues who are very tall or who dash around in colourful, polka-dotted coats that make them easy to spot in a crowd. Because the site of the fair is just as enormous as everybody told you, it’s full to the brim with publishing people from all over the world – and the tempo is higher than you could ever have imagined.

The winners are:

January’s translator of the month is Norwegian-Arabic Sherin Abdel Wahab, who has recently translated Jon Fosse’s novel Morning and Evening, in collaboration with Amal Al Sadaany.

This year’s figures from NORLA are clear – 2017 was another record year for Norwegian literature abroad. Never before has NORLA provided support for so many translations of Norwegian authors.

In 2017, NORLA granted support for the translation of 538 books by Norwegian authors, into 44 languages. That makes 2017 the best year ever for Norwegian literature in translation.
– 2017 remains a record year for Norwegian literature abroad. Never before have so many titles been granted translation support from NORLA, says Margit Walsø, NORLA’s director.

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.

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.