Icelandic Publishers Strengthen Ties to Swedish Colleagues in Stockholm
The goal with this exchange with Sweden is to strengthen ties between colleagues, promote Icelandic literature in Sweden, increase translations and expand their distribution.
Publisher exchanges between Iceland and Sweden took place for the first time in June of this year.
In June 2019, The Icelandic Literature Center collaborated with Swedish Literature Exchange in exchanging publishers/agents between the two countries. Three Icelandic publishers went to Stockholm while three Swedish publishers/agents took their place in Iceland for three days. Similar exchanges have been made between other Nordic countries and have proved successful. The goal with the exchange with Sweden was to strengthen ties between colleagues, promote Icelandic literature in Sweden, increase the number of translations and expand their distribution.
The three people receiving exchange grants from the Icelandic Literature Center this time were Valgerður Benediktsdóttir/Forlagið, Guðrún Vilmundardóttir/Benedikt, and Páll Valsson/Bjartur. They all agreed that the trip to Stockholm was a success in every aspect. They were warmly welcomed by the Swedish Literature Exchange and received a thorough introduction to the Swedish publishing sector, meeting colleagues in good and beneficial meetings in publishing houses all over the city.
The people who came to Reykjavik on the exchange were Kajsa Palo from Ahlander Agency, Linda Altrov Berg from Norstedts Agency, and Jonas Ellström from Ellström förlag. They were introduced to the operations of the Icelandic Literature Center, the Icelandic book market, translations, and grant possibilities. Last but not least, they had fruitful meetings with Icelandic publishers, authors, and translators. You can read an interview with them here.
“The trip to Stockholm was fantastic, a very warm welcome and I returned home elated after having met several publishers and strengthen our bonds significantly!” Valgerður Benediktsdóttir, Forlagið
“I really enjoyed this exchange and learned a lot,” says Guðrún Vilmundardóttir, Benedikt publishing. „It just gives you a much better picture to actually meet people in their place of work.”
“There we had opportunity to discuss things in detail and spend time that you just don't have for instance at the Frankfurt Book Fair where everything is fixed into tight time slots.” Páll Valsson, Bjartur