Lars Moa receives prestigious Nordic translator award

It was announced yeserday that Norwegian translator Lars Moa has received the 2025 Nordic translator award from the Letterstedt Society for his undisputed contribution to making modern Faroese literature available in Norwegian. The award was established through a donation from former senior lecturer in German at Stockholm University, Lars-Olof Nyhlén, and his late wife, Marthe Hässelby, and has been awarded since 2012. The award recognises translation between the Nordic languages of a literary or essaystic work or a translator’s work as a whole. The prize money is 100.000 SEK and comes from Nyhlén’s funds, and the award is one of the most prestigious Nordic translator’s prizes.

In the Letterstedt’s Society’s rationale for recognising Lars Moa and his translations from Faroese to living and modern Norwegian Nynorsk, they state:

… The turnover of a series of poetry collections shows high linguistic precision; at the same time as they are characterized by a deep insight into the cultural and social needs that lie behind the original work.

Moa, born in 1947, has since 2003 translated or edited a number of books of various genres from Faroese to Norwegian Nynorsk, including children’s and YA books, poetry collections, crime fiction and novels. He has notably translated works by Faroese authors, such as Jóanes Nielsen, Carl Jóhan Jensen, Rakel Helmsdal and Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs. His most recent published translation from Faroese is Silja Aldudóttir’s 2022 children’s horror novel Ódjór (Udyret i tunnelen in Norwegian nynorsk) from Orkana Forlag, released in 2024.

FarLit congratulates Lars Moa and thanks him for bringing Faroese literature to Norwegian readers!