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September is World Kid Lit Month, an initiative focusing on disseminating literature for young readers written in languages other than English, and books that are available in English translation.

In Norway, we are very proud of our brave literature for children and young adults, and many titles are available in English translation. And we are of course happy to present a small selection.

September is World Kid Lit Month, an initiative focusing on disseminating literature for young readers written in languages other than English, and books that are available in English translation.

Women in Translation, or WIT, is a global collaborative project held every August, to help promote women writers from around the world who write in languages other than English. Here at NORLA we are pleased to share our own contribution to WITMonth with you.

Women in Translation, or WIT, is a global collaborative project to help remedy the discrepancy between the amount of works by women published in English translation, and how they are critically received. WITMonth is held held every August, to help promote women writers from around the world who write in languages other than English. Here at NORLA we would like to share our own contribution to WITMonth with you.

June and July’s translator of the month is Rosie Hedger, who translates from Norwegian into English. Rosie Hedger was born in Scotland and completed her MA (Hons) in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, as part of which she spent a year at the University of Oslo taking courses in Norwegian literature and researching for her dissertation on contemporary Norwegian fiction. Since completing her studies, Rosie has lived in Sweden and Denmark, and she is now based in the north of England. Her translation of Gine Cornelia Pedersen’s Zero was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize in 2019, and her translation of Agnes Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal won an English PEN Translates Award in 2016. Her translations of Marie Aubert’s Grown Ups and Helga Flatland’s One Last Time are both due out this summer.

Today, the Norwegian Minister of Culture, Abid Raja, awarded the prestigious Ministry of Culture’s literary prizes for children and young adult literature published in 2019.
A total of NOK 360,000 were awarded in seven 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 and The Translation Award.

Our translator of the month is Nobuyoshi Mori, who translates into Japanese. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and later a master’s degree in German at the same university. In the period 1983-85 he studied Norwegian at the University of Oslo and since returning to Japan he has worked as a language teacher – and since 2006 as a professor. He has also taught German and Scandinavian languages (mainly Norwegian and Icelandic) at various universities and language schools. In March 2019 he retired, but still teaches Scandinavian languages part-time. He is now responsible for teaching Norwegian at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to future diplomats who are to be stationed in Norway. He is a language teacher first and foremost, he says, but translates from Scandinavian languages when the opportunity presents itself.

It is uplifting to be able to confirm that interest in Norwegian literature abroad has continued to be remarkably high during a year when so much has changed as a result of a pandemic. When physical meetings and travel are not possible, literature can still provide knowledge and experience. In 2020, NORLA received a record number of applications for translation support – as many as 660 applications – surpassing the number of applications in 2018, which amounted to 651.

We are extremely happy and proud to learn that Norway’s Guest of Honour Pavilion at the 2019 Frankfurter Buchmesse is nominated for the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.

A big congratulations to the architects LCLA office and Manthey Kula!