Lively Literary Conversations in Lillehammer
The Norwegian Festival of Literature / Sigrid Undset Days took place in Lillehammer from 1–7 June, bringing together authors, translators, publishers and literary enthusiasts from Norway and abroad.
In its 31st year, the festival has established itself as one of the most important literary meeting places in the Nordic region. This year’s programme focused on Europe as its central theme, with particular emphasis on European authors, literary perspectives and contemporary social issues.
Translators United
Along with ten translators of Norwegian literature, we immersed ourselves in plentyful and interesting events all around this city of literature. The city is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature network.
We also had our own translation workshop on an extract from Agnes Ravatn’s critically acclaimed novel Doggerland. The workshop was followed by a great presentation by the author herself, where she was also able to answer a few of the word puzzles that the workshop had revealed. The book is one of NORLA’s Selected Titles this spring, and is so far sold for translation into six languages.
Front row from the left: Ana Flecha Marco, Egle Isganaityte, Dilek Carelius, Sanna Manninen, Paul Russell Garrett, Maria Valeria D'Avino and Martin Aitken. Photo: Mette Børja.
One of the festival’s recurring events was NORLA’s translators’ lunch, Babel’s Feast, which brought together NORLA’s international translators and their Norwegian colleagues from the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators for an informal social gathering.
The lunch also provided an opportunity for exchanging experiences, building professional networks and engaging in conversations across languages and national borders. As in previous years, the gathering proved to be a valuable forum for dialogue among translators who share a common connection to the Norwegian language, whether they translate from Norwegian into other languages or bring literature from other languages into Norwegian.
ENLit – European Network for Literary Translation
The ENLit network held its spring meeting in Lillehammer, where colleagues from across Europe discussed next year’s activities and the future strategy of the network. ENLit consists 30 literary export and expert organisations working to support literary translation and promote European literature internationally.
The network also hosted a panel discussion, presenting their work and ways to strengthen literary exports and increase the international visibility of literature from each participating country. The panel also explored the role of AI in literary translation.
Read more
Visit the festival website
Visit the ENLit webside
More about the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature
Read about author Agnes Ravatn
