Women in Translation Month

August is #WomenInTranslation (#WITmonth) month, which is a particular cause for celebration at Norvik Press, because we are rightly proud of our many women authors, as well as the fine translators – female and male – who have brought them into English.

Norvik’s collection includes not only famous names of the past such as Amalie Skram and Edith Södergran but also a range of leading contemporary writers including Kerstin Ekman and Kirsten Thorup. In our continuing ‘Lagerlöf in English’ series, we are committed to bringing new, unabridged translations of classic Selma Lagerlöf works to a new audience.

A justified concern has been expressed of late about the lack of women authors being translated into English, a debate well summarised by Katy Derbyshire in a Guardian piece earlier this year: The Guardian article >

The average percentage of female-authored works translated across the board is put in the article at 26%, whereas Norvik Press’s figures are 48%. Since 2009, Norvik Press has been run by an all-woman team and the female part of our list has gone from strength to strength; in our new titles for 2016 it will constitute 60%.

In 2017 we will be continuing in the same vein with new projects including Vigdis Hjorth’s A House in Norway (transl. Charlotte Barslund), which was awarded a prestigious PEN Translates grant this spring.

This autumn Norvik Press will celebrate its 30th anniversary and as part of this event, to be held at University College London, we will be launching the latest additions to our Lagerlöf series, the first of them completing one trilogy and the second embarking on another: Anna Svärd (transl. Linda Schenck) and Mårbacka (transl. Sarah Death). Date and venue details will be announced later.

Our latest catalogue can be downloaded from the Norvik Press website. To whet your appetite, here are some of our titles by women writers:

Kerstin Ekman
Childhood
Translated by Rochelle Wright