Norway’s Princess Mette-Marit Hosts Literary Reception at the Royal Palace in Oslo

Emily BurackThu, April 23, 2026 at 7:36 PM UTC

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Princess Mette-Marit Hosts Literary ReceptionJAVAD PARSA - Getty Images

Crown Princess Mette-Marit today hosted a ceremony at Oslo’s Royal Palace for the Fosse Lecture and Fosse Prize, despite stepping back from most public engagements due to ongoing health issues.

In 2018, the princess was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, and this year, the Palace revealed she is preparing for a lung transplant. In early April, she appeared with an oxygen catheter, an assistive breathing device, for the first time.

Mette-Marit on April 10.LISE ASERUD - Getty Images

American author Marilynne Robinson gave the Fosse Lecture this year, and Dutch translator Paula Stevens received the Fosse Prize for Translators. Both were established in 2023 to honor Norwegian author Jon Fosse, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature that year. “Both Jon Fosse and Marilynne Robinson are Christian authors. They both write from a place where faith has a deep, existential meaning. A recurring theme in both of them is grace,” Princess Mette-Marit said in her opening remarks, per NRK, which she delivered while seated. Of Robinson, she added, “She is one of the most renowned authors of our time, and one of America’s foremost intellectuals.”

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Mette-Marit also thanked those who came to the reception, telling them, “Thank you for having a voice and wanting to use it.”

Among those in the audience was Helene Heger Voldner, chair of the Norwegian Library Association; the organization removed Princess Mette-Marit as their royal patron in February following new revelations surrounding her links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “I am here to celebrate Jon Fosse and literature and the joy of reading, and how much it means to the entire Norwegian people,” Vodner told NRK. Being a guest of the Crown Princess is “completely uncomplicated,” she added. “We are here today to talk about literature and the joy of reading.”

Princess Mette-Marit remained the royal patron of the Fosse Lecture and the Fosse Prize. “I think it is great that the Crown Princess has been and still is the high patron of both the lecture and the award,” Fosse himself told VG.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”