埃尔娜·奥斯兰(Erna Osland)
You and Me 你和我
Du og eg
You and Me 你和我
Du og eg
March’s Translator of the Month is the Norwegian-Scot Kari Dickson. She has been put forward by – and has received a question from – her translator colleague Anne Bruce. Kari translates fiction, crime, children and youth literature, drama and non-fiction. And her translations receive international attention:
The children’s book Brown (original title: Brune), by Håkon Øvreås and Øyvind Torseter, recently won the American Library Association’s Mildred L. Batchelder Award 2020. And in addition, her translation of the picture book Vanishing Colours is listed on USBBY’s list of Oustanding International Books 2020. The book is written by Constance Ørbeck-Nilssen and illustrated by Akin Duzakin.
Congratulations from us!
In addition to translating, Kari has extensive experience as a lecturer in Norwegian language, literature and translation at the University of Edinburgh. She has also led workshops in translation from Norwegian on many occasions, including at the Summer School of British Center for Literary Translation (BCLT), University of East Anglia in Norwich. We at NORLA are particularly grateful for Kari’s invaluable contribution to both the recruitment and the training of new, skilled translators through her work as a mentor.
When I Drink
Når jeg drikker
Wednesday, August 14th was a big day for Norwegian literature: ten Norwegian books were released during Shanghai International Literature Week. The books are being published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
“Over the past five years, Norwegian literature has experienced a huge increase in popularity in China. It’s mainly been literature for children and young adults – illustrated books in particular – and non-fiction for adults. It’s therefore especially gratifying that Shanghai Translation Publishing House’s efforts are now giving Chinese readers access to a wide selection of Norwegian novels in addition to an important non-fiction book,” says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.
When the summer holidays approach it is always exciting to summarise the activities we at NORLA have carried out in our effort to open doors to Norwegian literature around the world. But this spring was turned upside-down due to the COVID-19 situation, and this meant that many of the meetings we had been looking forward to were cancelled. There were no physical book fairs in Leipzig, London or Bologna, and no international guests in Lillehammer for the Norwegian Festival of Literature.
Luckily, however, we have been able to meet digitally. Many organisers have turned things round by grasping the opportunities available within modern technology. The Norwegian Festival of Literature reinvented itself and, in collaboration with NRK, Norway’s public broadcaster, became the biggest digital festival in the Nordic region. By doing this they reached hundreds of thousands of people who would have been otherwise unable to participate. For the first time, NORLA arranged webinars for international publishers and translators who should have been our guests at this year’s festival in Lillehammer.
Leipziger Buchmesse is an important venue for encounters between writers and their readers – and a unique arena for cosplay. In connection to Siri Pettersen’s Raven Rings trilogy we organised a cosplay competition in Norway. Now the winner has been selected.
For more than one year NORLA has been working towards enabling Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt book fair in 2019. Last week the happy news arrived that the Norwegian government views this endeavour as a measure towards increasing the export of Norwegian culture and will ask the Norwegian Parliament to pledge NOK 25 million.
Margit Walsø, Director of NORLA, states: "With this pledge a significant portion of the funding can be in place, but we are not there yet.
In 2019, Norway will be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest and most important meeting place for literature. The project has been broadly supported by both public and private funding, it recently gained several new partners and is now almost fully financed.
Norway’s Minister of Culture Thorhild Widvey visited this year’s book fair in Frankfurt and had the opportunity to experience the level of activity at the world’s most important international literary arena. She met the book fair’s management, representatives from different guest nations and not least Norwegian publishers and agents. Widvey expressed how impressed she was with how we present Norwegian literature and especially appreciated seeing that so much good work is being done for children’s and young people’s literature.
For over a year NORLA has worked towards enabling Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the book fair in 2019. The government views this endeavour as a means of expanding the export of Norwegian culture and will ask the Norwegian Storting to pledge up to NOK 25 million. This still falls short on the part of the government of the amount of NOK 33 million applied for by NORLA. The total budget is NOK 55 million.
Since the autumn of 2014 NORLA has worked intensively to lay the foundation to enable Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. We are pleased that this initiative was met with overwhelming support from the Storting, says Margit Walsø, director of NORLA.
2015 has been a fantastic year for Norwegian literature abroad and an exciting year for NORLA. We have worked intensively to lay the foundation to enable Norway to apply for Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. We are pleased that this initiative has met with overwhelming support from the Storting. When the broad engagement on the part of the book industry now receives the whole-hearted support of the Government and the Storting, we have a fantastic starting point for a Norwegian application for Guest of Honour status. The Storting’s decision to back the application with NOK 30 million creates an exceptional opportunity to make a large investment in the export of Norwegian literature and culture, and we thank everyone who has contributed to our having come this far in the application process.
There’s been quite a lot of activity at NORLA over the last month, with many great meetings both at home and abroad! We would like to share some photos and briefly inform you about the various events that have taken place.
On 12 May at 2 PM, in the lobby of the National Theatre in Oslo, NORLA’s Director Margit Walsø and Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Director Juergen Boos signed the agreement confirming Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019.
Seven Norwegian businesses have been chosen to participate in the export program “Literature Go Global”.
There was joy and enthusiasm all around in the National Theatre in Oslo on 12 May 2016, as the agreement between the Frankfurter Buchmesse and NORLA, Norwegian Literature Abroad, was signed and officially confirming Norway as Guest of Honour at the book fair in 2019.
NORLA’s director Margit Walsø welcomed an enthusiastic audience and revealed that NORLA has been working towards the realization of the Guest of Honour project for about three years.
The Norwegian Minister of Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, held an enthusiastic speech welcoming this unique opportunity for Norwegian literature and culture to make an even bigger impression abroad. She also encouraged more privat sponsors to seize the opportunity to come aboard, to make the most of the project’s fantastic possibilities of Norwegian branding abroad.
The most important news item of the spring for Norwegian cultural life was that Norway was named Guest of Honour for the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019. In the speech given by the Minister of Culture in conjunction with the signing of the agreement, she emphasized that Norway has hereby acquired a unique position for the internationalization of Norwegian literature and culture through the book fair’s strong position in the important German market and worldwide. The Guest of Honour project provides great opportunities for Norwegian authors and for increasing the export of literature in the coming years. The book trade’s combined investment will be crucial and Norwegian Book Day in June clearly demonstrated that the industry is prepared to make the most of this opportunity. Activities commence now. NORLA’s talent development programme for new literary voices within all genres will start up in the autumn, in collaboration with Talent Norway and the Norwegian Publishers Association.
Read more about Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019 here.
The planning of Norway Guest of Honour Frankfurt 2019 is well under way.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest book fair and this year all the Norwegian participants were gathered at a large joint stand, in a reinforced collaboration between the Norwegian Publishers Association, Norwegian agents, NORLA and Norwegian publishers. The stand was a hub of extensive activity and vibrant energy, and it was of course also decorated with many good, beautiful books in all genres.
All seven of NORLA’s staff members took part in the book fair this year for the very first time! This was also NORLA’s 25th anniversary in Frankfurt, an event that was commemorated by a friendly gesture of appreciation from the book fair in the form of a delicious cake delivered to the stand.
During the presentation of the culture report “The Power of Culture,” Trine Skei Grande asserted that cultural policy is freedom of expression’s policy. We at NORLA could not agree more.