The Length and Breadth of the Nordic Region

The Length and Breadth of the Nordic Region is a series of three anthologies as part of LØFTET, an initiative by the Nordic ministers for culture for children’s and young people’s literature. The main focus is an annual interdisciplinary seminar on current Nordic children’s and young people’s literature, resulting in a three-part anthology addressing the themes discussed at the seminar and other relevant topics. We hope you will enjoy reading them.

This anthology provides insight into social sustainability in recent Nordic children’s and young people’s literature from a research, communication, illustrative, and creative literary perspective. Among other things, the anthology offers essays on social instability, minorities and diversity, as well as a sustainable cycle in Nordic children’s and young people’s literature. In addition, the anthology contains six stories about social (un)sustainability, which have been written by way of a collaboration between Nordic illustrators and authors. It is the third in a series of three and has been published in 2022. The contributions are in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

This anthology provides insight into ecocritical trends in recent Nordic children’s and young people’s literature from a research, communication, illustrative, and creative literary perspective. It includes essays on the challenges of the Anthropocene, and studies of the relationships between nature, culture and waste and about environmental activists in books for children and young people. It also includes seven hard-hitting eco-dramas, all of which are the result of collaborations between Nordic illustrators and authors. The contributions to the anthology are in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. It is the second in a series of three and was published in 2021.

This anthology provides an insight into new trends in children’s and young people’s literature and how these are reflected in research and dissemination. It also looks at how the research and dissemination of children’s and young people’s literature came about and how it thrives the length and breadth of the Nordic Region. The essays deal with the whole lifecycle of children’s literature, questions whether the Nordic picture book is for a particular age-group, freestyles with Nordic rhapsody, and puts the concept of quality under the microscope. The contributions to the anthology are in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. It is the first in a series of three and was published in 2019.

In 2013, when it initiated the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize, the Nordic Council of Ministers also launched a project called LØFTET. The Secretariat for the Nordic Council’s literature prizes was tasked with managing and developing this project in the period 2019 to 2021, during which the main focus was an annual interdisciplinary seminar on current Nordic children’s and young people’s literature. 

The seminar took place each summer between 2019 and 2021. Next winter it will be followed by the publication of a three-part anthology in both digital format and hard copy, dealing with the themes discussed at the seminar that year as well as other relevant topics. 

The seminar forges and strengthens links between the people and professions involved in Nordic children’s and young people’s literature by providing an opportunity for the various groups – researchers, authors, illustrators, communications professionals, publishers – in the Nordic literature scene to network, discuss issues, and create synergies, including after the seminar and the publication of the anthologies.