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.
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 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.
NORLA congratulates the winners of the 2013 Norwegian Literary Critics’ Prizes for Literature:
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).
Here you will find details on a l l of our upcoming events.
During 2016 NORLA received a record-breaking 438 Norwegian books that have been published in a total of 47 languages made possible by translation subsidies from NORLA (and within the Nordic countries: from the Nordic Council of Ministers).
This surpasses even last year’s all-time high!
Of the 438 books, 349 were fiction titles and 89 non-fiction titles. And there were 127 books for children/young adults.
See all Norwegian books published abroad in 2016 through funding in the list below.
See our pictures that prove it here!
NORLA, Norwegian literature abroad, provides funding for the translation of Norwegian titles to be published abroad. The total amount of translation subsidies awarded in 2016 has once again beaten all previous records and among other developments, we can see a clear expansion within the English language market.
NORLA received last year all of 518 applications for translation subsidies, the largest number of applications in our history. Out of these applications, NORLA’s committees of experts awarded subsidies for 499 publications of Norwegian books in translation into 46 different languages.
The winners are:
Vigdis Hjorth
Wills and Testaments (original title: Arv og miljø)
(Published by Cappelen Damm)
About the book and read the statement from the jury
Read the Norwegian speech from the prize ceremony here
Marit Paasche
Hannah Ryggen. En fri (original title)
(Published by Pax forlag)
About the book
More about Hannah Ryggen here
Read the Norwegian speech from the prize ceremony here
Tyra Teodora Tronstad
The Darkness Comes From Within (original title: Mørket kommer innenfra)
(Published by Aschehoug)
About the book
Read the Norwegian speech from the prize ceremony here
Anne Cathrine Straume
Her reviews (in Norwegian) may be found at the NRK – Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation – website
Read the Norwegian speech from the prize ceremony here
Kristin Sørsdal
For the translation from the Italian of Historia om det tapte barnet by Elena Ferrante (published by Samlaget).
Read the Norwegian speech from the prize ceremony here
The Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature (Den norske Kritikerprisen for litteratur or Kritikerprisen) is awarded by the Norwegian Literature Critics’ Association (Norsk Litteraturkritikerlag) and has been awarded every year since 1950. The prize is presented to a Norwegian author for a literary work as agreed to among the members of the Norwegian Literature Critics’ Association. Since 1978 the Norwegian Literature Critics’ Association has also awarded a prize for the best work of children’s literature. In 2003 the Critics Prize for the year’s best work of translation was established, and in 2012 the Critics Prize for the year’s best work of nonfiction for adults was established.
Read more about the Norwegian literary critics’ prizes and previous winners
Updated info (in Norwegian only) here
In September we have had visits from 20 German booksellers here in Oslo. During the visits representatives met with authors, illustrators and Norwegian bookstores, and were given an introduction to the Norwegian literary system, among other things. The program has shown the breadth of Norwegian literature and there was a great deal of engagement from the bookselleres during the visits. This is an important part of our strategic cooperation, which may be crucial for getting Norwegian books under Christmas trees in 2019.
The Norwegian Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, recently awarded the 2016 Ministry of Culture’s literary prizes for children and young adults.
We congratulate the winners:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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 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!