The Norwegian government has announced the creation of two literary initiatives honoring Nobel laureate Jon Fosse: an annual translation prize and lecture series.
The Fosse Prize for Translators, which will award NOK 500,000 (approximately $45,000), aims to become one of the world's largest translation awards. On Monday, the organizers announced Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel as the prize's inaugural winner. Schmidt-Henkel translates from Norwegian, Danish, French, and Italian into German, and has translated several of Fosse's major works into German. He has also translated more than two dozen other Norwegian writers, including Tarjei Vesaas, Henrik Ibsen, Cecilie Løveid, and Ruth Lillegraven.
Of course, translating Fosse is not a prerequisite for being considered for the award; rather, the prize recognizes translators who have devoted extensive time to translating Norwegian literature into other languages.
"With this initiative, we hope to establish a new cultural forum that inspires literary conversations, both in Norway and abroad," said Lubna Jaffery, Norway's minister of culture and equality. "We want to showcase the power and role of literature in society and strengthen Norway's position in the international world of literature."
On Monday, the organizers also announced that the first Fosse Lecture will be given on April 24 at the Royal Palace in Oslo by Jean-Luc Marion, a French philosopher and Catholic theologian.
"The Fosse Lecture aims to bring the international literary discourse to Norway, and the Fosse Prize honors those who help make Norwegian literature accessible to an international audience," said Aslak Sira Myhre, Norway's national librarian. "In so doing, we establish new cultural institutions in Norway, and these institutions will endure for generations to come."
The lecture series will feature international academics, authors, playwrights, and intellectuals presenting original work about literature, though speakers are not required to discuss Fosse's work specifically. Each lecture must be original and written specifically for this event.
The National Library of Norway is managing both the Fosse Prize for Translators and the Fosse Lecture in collaboration with Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA), the agency that handles translation grants and promotes the country's literary culture around the world. NORLA will also host an international translation seminar in conjunction with the award presentation. Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit is the patron of both the lecture and the prize.
Fosse expressed admiration for both Schmidt-Henkel and Marion as the inaugural honorees. “Germany has traditionally been the most important country for translated Norwegian literature and, for many years, Hinrich has been the most important German translator," Fosse said in a video. "So I think it is a perfectly obvious choice."
And about Marion, he said, "I find [Marion's] way of thinking very appealing.... He builds a robust case for literature as a place to understand and experience life or learn something about love. Or God for that matter."
