Who will receive money from the state to write books, and how will they be selected? That is the big question that Norwegian writers are now arguing about. The Storting has announced changes to the committees that award the Government’s arts grants. Today, the literary council is responsible. They are appointed by the Norwegian Authors’ Association (DnF). Majority in the Storting In the new proposal to the government, it is opened up for other organizations representing artists and writers to have the right and opportunity to appoint members to the committees. This means that the Authors’ Association will also be able to get a piece in the game on who will receive state author’s grants. – The proposal is under consideration, but we are in full swing. There is a broad majority who will stand behind the proposal, Storting representative Torstein Tvedt Solberg confirms to news. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NPK He says that the arrangement, where DnF has the exclusive right, has expired. – This does not mean that the system has worked poorly. The democratic process of peer review and quality requirements has worked very well. But it is a 30-year-old system, says Solberg. – The landscape has changed, and other organizations have come into being. A majority in the Storting will support that everyone should be able to take part in this. Call for trouble The Norwegian Authors’ Association has strict requirements for membership. One must have published at least two books, and be approved by an admissions committee. The Authors’ Association, on the other hand, welcomes anyone who has published a work of fiction, without quality requirements. A fifth of the members are also budding writers without published works. DnF is concerned about what will happen if the Authors’ Association is allowed to take part in awarding the State’s artist grant. At the end of January, 72 well-known authors signed a petition in VG – among them Jon Fosse, Karl Ove Knausgård and Vigdis Hjorth. It created reactions. Crime writer Anne Holt, who is a member of the Writers’ Association, called the appeal “dreadful”, “stupid” and “downright embarrassing”. – They have a strange top-down attitude to what we read, she wrote on Facebook. Cultural commentator Inger Merete Hobbelstad writes that there has been a feeling that the Authors’ Association is the A team, while the Authors’ Association is the B team. On Tuesday, the two parties will meet for a debate on news.
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The Norwegian Writers’ Association loses the exclusive right to award state grants – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
