Janina Orlov

Porträttbild av en kvinna med kort hår och ansiktet lutat i handen — Photo: Susanne Kronholm

Do you have any childhood reading memories that have stayed with you over the years?

"Once, just after I learned to read, I was in the countryside in Finland and I found a book in a corner of the attic. It was a Swedish translation of South by Java Head by Alastair Maclean. It was desperately exciting. I turned each page with a mixture of terror and delight."

How did you get started as a translator, and what is translating like as a profession?

"It was by chance. I had been asked to translate a stage adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment for a theatre in Helsinki. I discovered how much fun translation is, and how exciting, and I decided to continue with it. Translating, like all writing, is a lot of work. It’s both pleasurable and challenging."

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Jury with extensive knowledge

Rewarding the highest-quality work demands an expert knowledge of international children’s and YA literature as well as children’s rights and children’s reading. The twelve-member expert jury has the challenging but pleasant task of evaluating some of the world's most prominent candidates each year and selecting a laureate.

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