Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway has made promoting literature one of her main causes and now she’s publishing a book to help raise the profile of Norwegian arts. The Crown Princess is behind a collection of writing that will hit the shelves in September.
Mette-Marit will co-edit a selection of twelve stories and essays which will be published just ahead of the famous Frankfurt Book Fair. This year, Norway is the main contributing country at the event which is billed as the ‘most important marketplace’ in the world for print and digital publishing.
The book, which has the working title of ‘The Home Country and Other Narratives’ will feature work by authors selected by Crown Princess Mette-Marit and her co-editor, Geir Gulliksen. Among those chosen by the pair are Vigdis Hjorth and Dag Solstad. The company publishing the book, Aschenoug, says that the editors have picked writers whose work they value highly and all the pieces in the tome will be new and previously unseen.
It’s understood that any money earned by Crown Princess Mette-Marit by the book will be donated to charity although which organisations will benefit hasn’t yet been confirmed.
The Crown Princess has long shown her support for literature and promoting reading. She has hosted a ‘literature train’ event through Norway for several years, travelling by rail to different destinations for a week to encourage others to pick up books and to discuss Norwegian writing. This year, she hosted her first ‘literature metro’ where she used the underground system in Oslo to promote reading across Norway’s capital.
Mette-Marit once said she couldn’t imagine life without books, adding ‘ever since I was a child, I have been read to and given the opportunity to enter a world of fantasy’ and she says that reading has made her ‘a better, wiser and more thoughtful person’.
It’s a message she wants to share on an international stage as she prepares to head to Frankfurt for the book fair. The Crown Princess has played a high profile part in the build up to Norway’s big moment at the event and she is expected to travel to Germany in October for the fair itself. In the meantime, her debut as a literary editor will make its way to the shops as another part of her ongoing campaign to boost reading and a love of books.
