Contact details
Norvik Press
Scandinavian Studies
UCL
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
E-Mail: norvik.press@ucl.ac.uk
Norvik Press is a small, independent, nonprofit publisher, with the aim of publishing classic and contemporary Nordic literature in quality English translations, along with critical writing on Nordic literature and culture. Norvik Press is situated within the Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London.
Around 120 titles have been published to date, most of these translations of Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish literature. Norvik Press also publishes the journals Scandinavica, an international, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal, and Swedish Book Review, which introduces new Swedish literature to non-Scandinavian readers, including publishers.
Our books are distributed by Gardners Books in the UK and Europe, and Ingram in the rest of the world.
Our logo is based on a drawing by Egil Bakka (University of Bergen), of a Viking ornament in gold foil, paper-thin, with impressed figures (size 16 x 21 mm). It was found in 1897 at Hauge, Klepp, Rogaland, and is now in the collection of the Historisk museum, University of Bergen (inv. no. 5392). It depicts a love scene, possibly (according to Magnus Olsen) between the fertility god Freyr and the maiden Gerðr; the large penannular brooch of the man’s cloak dates the work as being most likely 10th century.
Get to know us
Elettra Carbone
Elettra is a Lecturer in Norwegian Studies at the Department of Scandinavian Studies, UCL. Her current research focuses on the representation of Scandinavia in the items part of UCL’s Special Collections and, more broadly, on the cultural relations between the UK and Scandinavia from the early nineteenth century. She has previously also written on representations of Italy in Nordic literature. Elettra is Deputy Editor of Scandinavica and has co-edited three themed issues: Nordic Publishing and Book History (2012), The Norwegian Independence and Constitution of 1814 (2015) and The Public Sphere and Freedom of Expression in Northern Europe 1814-1914 (2019). Two of her favourite books are recent additions to Norvik’s Norwegian catalogue: A House in Norway by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund, and Lobster Life by Erik Fosnes Hansen, translated by Janet Garton. Both books feature stunning covers designed by Essi Viitanen.
Sarah Death
Sarah got her first real break as a literary translator when Norvik Press commissioned her to translate Fredrika Bremer’s The Colonel’s Family in the late 1980s, and she has been translating for them intermittently ever since. It was her involvement with Norvik as editor of Swedish Book Review that led to her being invited to become one of its directors. She enjoys being part of the international, multilingual team, and seeing ideas for cover designs develop into their final form. She is both an editor and a translator for our ‘Lagerlöf in English’ series, and her favourite Norvik title is Kerstin Ekman’s The Angel House.
Janet Garton
As an Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Studies from the University of East Anglia, Janet prefers to describe herself as a freelance researcher rather than a retired one. She divides her time between working on nineteenth-century Dano-Norwegian literature – most particularly the writer Amalie Skram – which gives her a good excuse for frequent visits to Oslo and Copenhagen, and translating modern novels, most recently Kirsten Thorup, Johan Borgen, Erik Fosnes Hansen and Jan Kjærstad. Her favourite Norvik books are Amalie Skram’s novels Fru Inés, Lucie and Betrayed, all brilliantly translated by Katherine Hanson and Judith Messick.
Cath Jenkins
Cath assists with administration, production and marketing and can most often be found in the Norvik Press office, which also acts as an archive. She has a background in independent publishing and open access book production, and is currently working on digitising back-issues of Scandinavica. Her favourite Norvik Press books are by Selma Lagerlöf – she particularly recommends Nils Holgersson’s Wonderful Journey through Sweden, translated by Peter Graves and illustrated by Bea Bonafini(yes, there’s pictures!). She also has a soft spot for Erik Fosnes Hansen’s Lobster Life, translated by Janet Garton(the first book published after she joined the team) and Vigdis Hjorth’s A House in Norway, translated by Charlotte Barslund.
Claire Thomson
Claire is an Associate Professor of Scandinavian Film at UCL so is supposed to spend her days thinking about cinema, but can’t seem to quit the translating and editing habit, and enjoys teaching translation from the Scandinavian languages as well as film. She recently squared the circle by translating a book about Werner Herzog from Danish, and has written her own books about Danish public information films and Dogme 95. Claire edits Scandinavica, and her favourite Norvik Press books are the anthologies of student writing by early-career researchers that her own students kicked off in 2012: Framed Horizons, Illuminating the North, Beyond Borealism, and The North as Home.
Essi Viitanen
Essi is a Senior Advisor of artistic research at Aalto University in Finland. Her background is in film research, teaching and publishing. She first joined Norvik Press as a designer to work on the Swedish Book Review layout in 2011 and has stuck around since. These days she looks after book production and keeps her design skills up by designing book covers. Her favourite Norvik Press books are contemporary fiction: Ilmar Taska’s Pobeda 1946 – A Car Called Victory translated by Christopher Moseley and Erik Fosnes Hansen’s Lobster Life by Janet Garton.