The Fosse Lecture and the Fosse Prize for Translators

En mannn og en kvinne som står bøyd over et bord og ser på bøker, papirer og hefter som ligger der.
Aslak Sira Myhre (Director of the National Library) showing Lubna Jaffery (Minister of Culture and Equality) the Fosse archive.

In December 2023, it was announced that the government will honor Nobel Prize in Literature winner Jon Fosse by establishing an annual Fosse Lecture and a Fosse Prize for translators, organized by the National Library of Norway. 

In line with Fosse’s work, the Fosse Lecture aims to bring literature as an art form to the foreground of public discourse. The lecturer will be an international author, playwright, academic, or intellectual who is making a significant contribution to the understanding or dissemination of literature worldwide. 

The Fosse Prize will be awarded in collaboration with NORLA and will be given to a translator who has devoted extensive time to translating Norwegian literature into other languages. The grant aims to celebrate translators who work with the Norwegian language and contribute to making Norwegian literature accessible to an international audience. 

With the Fosse Lecture and Prize, Norway establishes a new annual cultural tradition, bringing world literature to Norway and Norwegian literature to the world.  

En hvit mann med sort dress og briller holder en større bok i hendene.
Playwright, Translator and Author Jon Fosse visiting the National Library upon donating his private archive.

The National Library is actively planning both the Fosse Lecture and Fosse Prize, and we look forward to sharing more about the project with you in due course.  

If you have any questions about the Fosse Lecture and/or the Fosse Prize, please contact our Project Coordinator, Martine Jonsrud, at martine.jonsrud@nb.no +47 45 11 16 35.