New Swedish Books

New
The best of the latest
Swedish literature,
selected by an Independent
columnist, presented by
the Swedish Arts Council
written by annina rabe
translated by nichola smalley
annual edition 2013
Your free copy
Swedish
books
annual edition 2013
Introduction: 3 Fiction: 4 Non Fiction: 22 Poetry: 28 support: 34 adresses: 36
Welcome to the best of the best, this year’s Swedish
literary cream of the crop!
Swedish literature continues to raise the bar, making it a
difficult task choosing which titles to single out for special
attention to a foreign audience.
This year’s pick has been made by the journalist and
literary critic Annina Rabe. She has surveyed the entire list
of 2013 publications and made her selection from a purely
literary perspective, hand-picking titles that she feels are of
particular interest. Her choices, issued during early spring
to late fall, include poetry, prose and non-fiction.
In this brochure you will also find contact details for publishers and agents as well as information about the support
the Swedish Art Council can provide for translations and
literature projects abroad.
Enjoy your reading!
Susanne Bergström Larsson
The Swedish Arts Council
1
Annina Rabe
2013
There’s one thing that cannot be denied about the
2013 list of Swedish titles: it’s big. Never has it been
as easy to publish books as it is now – the number of
small publishers and self-published books is constantly
increasing. Add to that the already burgeoning lists
of the established publishers, and it’s clear to see that
many more books are published than there is space
for, whether that’s in newspapers and magazines or in
bookshops. That’s why there’s so much talk of form,
rather than of content in literary circles. Ebooks are
gaining ground, and no one knows what implications
that will have in the future.
This year’s Swedish literary offering is characterised by
a variety and diversity of subjects and styles. There’s still
a strong tendency towards autobiography, as marked
by the publication of another mammoth volume of
Lars Norén’s diaries, which caused a degree of unease
among Sweden’s arts establishment. There’s also a real
focus on politics and debate, with current affairs titles
getting a lot of attention. However, it’s also possible
to discern a clear shift towards classic epic storytelling,
often with historical themes.
3
Right now, literary fiction is following a number
of different paths. Many members of the youngest
generation of authors have a strong sense for language,
bordering on poetry. There is a notable political focus,
also reflected in the language – many novels by young
writers deal, directly or indirectly, with subjects such
as ethnicity, gender and class. Additionally, there is a
tendency to look beyond Sweden’s borders: recently,
Swedish novels have been set in locations such as
St Petersburg, Tehran and Malaysia.
Another clear tendency is the emerging wave of
epic storytelling. These authors write fiction that
is relatively traditional and straightforward; their
novels are plot-driven, putting the story centre-stage.
Such novels often reach back in time; they are wellresearched, demonstrating real attention to detail. It
is easy to speculate that they represent a backlash to
the wave of autobiographical and experimental prose
which has been so dominant in recent years, and
which continues to be prominent.
Photo: Sara Mac Key
fiction
Contemporary Life.
Spot on.
Is it possible to live life ignoring the norms of society?
That’s one question Linn Spross asks in her debut novel,
which is a humorous, yet serious portrayal of two young
women who meet at university and fall in love. They
are polar opposites: Hanna hesitant and introverted,
Imagine bold and relentlessly confident. Their friendship
is put to the test when Hanna starts to question
Imagine’s schemes: is it really morally defensible to
finance your life through petty theft? With a sensitive ear
for dialogue and liberating humour, Linn Spross has her
finger right on the pulse of contemporary life.
Linn Spross
Basic Studies In Hope And Hopelessness
Wahlström & Widstrand
Rights: Wahlström & Widstrand
4
5
Photo: Brombergs. Photo right side: Malin Sydne
Believable
What form do power relations take in an all-consuming
friendship? Lina Hagelbäck’s Violencia is a tale told
as a prose poem about two young women, the poets
Violencia and Stina, and their symbiotic relationship.
Violencia is the more dominant of the two, subjecting
Stina to sadistic punishments. Yet still Stina hangs on,
the inequality between them essential in sustaining their
relationship. Their interactions may be characterised by
inferiority and superiority, but Lina Hagelbäck’s prose
is inferior to nothing. It is relentlessly imaginative and
energetic, full of images that should be impossible: how,
for instance, can summer be “indecisive in the same
way as an underskirt”? Everything is believable in Lina
Hagelbäck’s linguistic world, and her debut is one of the
year’s most celebrated.
Lina Hagelbäck
Violencia
Brombergs
Rights: Brombergs
6
In 2011, Kristian Gidlund, journalist and drummer in
the acclaimed band Sugarplum Fairy, found out he had
stomach cancer. He underwent a number of treatments,
and it seemed the cancer was receding. But a year later,
it came back, and this time, the prognosis was that the
illness was incurable. Kristian Gidlund’s story in the face
of death is naked and revealing. It oscillates between pain
and anger, but gives an overwhelming impression of a lust
for life that cannot be extinguished, at its peak just as life
begins to fade away.
The book is based on a much-read blog he started
to write when he was first diagnosed; however, it is so
stylistically and literarily confident it works well in its own
right. Kristian Gidlund’s documented struggle with
cancer has attracted enormous attention in Sweden, and
he recently remarked, somewhat wryly, that this was a
sign that “Sweden is a country in urgent need of therapy”.
Kristian Gidlund died in September this year, just a few
days before his 30th birthday.
Kristian Gidlund
In this Body of Mine – The Journey to the End of Life
and the Beginning of It All
Forum
Rights: Hedlund Literary Agency
7
Photo: Cato Lein. Photo left side: Ulla Montan
Time to tell
It can’t be often that an ordinary
wooden floor causes such a literary
ruckus. But really, this is no ordinary floor, this is the wooden floor
where PO Enquist made his sexual
debut as a 15-year-old – seduced by
a 51-year-old woman. He promises
her he’ll never tell anyone about this
life-changing event. The boy keeps
his promises for almost his whole life,
but the aging author realises there’s
no avoiding it: now it’s time to write
about even those things that have
previously been unwritten. Should
the truth be told even if it involves a
betrayal and a broken promise? On
the river bank he constantly sees in
his mind’s eye, there stands a line of
his friends, close to death, imploring
him, ever more urgently, to write
down even the parts he has suppressed and forgotten.
8
The autobiographical Metaphor.
A Love Story bears the subtitle ‘a novel
about love’, but is probably more
of a soul-searching summation, the
kind that happens when a life approaches its end. It is a book where
the extremes of guilt and temptation
are pitted against one another to
fight their final battle.
PO Enquist
Metaphor. A Love Story
Norstedts
Rights: Norstedts Agency
Caught in the thrall of love
Lena Andersson is best known as an incisive, fearless voice in contemporary
social debate, the author of a number of political novels with satirical impact.
Arbitrary Conduct – a Novel about Love is a new stage in her writing career – with
it, she takes on the theme of love for the first time. The poet Ester Nilsson
is asked to give a talk on the artist Hugo Rask and falls hopelessly in love.
Unfortunately, Hugo Rask turns out to be unreliable and self-obsessed, but that
doesn’t deter Ester, who is caught in the thrall of love. Lena Andersson’s book is
a philosophical dissection of the power play and self-deception love can lead us into.
Lena
Lena Andersson
Einhorn
Arbitrary Conduct – a Novel about Love
Blekingegatan
Natur
& Kultur32
Rights:
Partners in stories
Norstedts
9
A new view of Garbo
The year is 1920, and young, poor department store
clerk Greta Gustafsson is accepted at the academy
of Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre, the most
prestigious theatre school in Sweden. On her very first
day there, she meets Mimi Pollak, a girl of the same age,
who is to become a great love, and a life-long friend.
Lena Einhorn’s novel shows us a new, hitherto unseen
image of Greta: the young theatre student who, from
the beginning, had quite different plans than becoming
a Hollywood film star. She has described her time at
the academy as the happiest in her life, and much of
the novel focuses on the feeling of belonging Greta felt
during that time, both in the theatre world, and in her
love for Mimi Pollack. Shortly after that, everything
changes, as the young actress is discovered by the star
director Mauritz Stiller, who transformed her into Greta
Garbo. She had mixed feelings about the break with
Sweden and her old life. Lena Einhorn has had access to
a series of letters between Garbo and Mimi Pollack, and
based the novel on their content.
Mikael Fant
Waters of March
Piratförlaget
Rights: Margareta Petersson Agent & Production
10
Photo: Agneta Åkesson. Photo left side: © Piratförlaget
It starts with a funeral. Inga Aronsson, beloved wife,
mother and grandmother, and talented amateur poet,
is laid to rest. Her whole family stand gathered: her
widower Edvin, who is unable to accept his wife’s death
and continues to push her empty wheelchair around,
and the three daughters, all of whom have taken different
paths in life. Mikael Fant’s family tale is incredibly driven
and broad in scope, constructed around a large number
of individual portraits that are intricately woven into
one another. He sketches his gallery of characters with
wondrous care, and collectively, his family saga forms a
multi-faceted picture of today’s Sweden. To quote the
grandchild Jonna, the book’s narrator: “This is a novel
about real people, piteous and miraculously strong by turn”.
Lena einhorn
blekingegatan 32
norstedts
Rights: Hedlund Literary Agency
11
Photo: Caroline Andersson. Photo left side: Anders Meisner
Fabian Kastner caused a commotion some years ago
with his debut novel Oneirine, which turned out to be
a literary experiment too far for the majority of critics:
large parts of the book consisted of pasted-together
quotes from selected works of world literature. By doing
so, he wanted to discuss the issue of whether originality
is possible in literature. In his new book, he has taken
as his starting point a theological essay on madness,
Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken (Memoirs of My
Nervous Illness) by Daniel Paul Schreber, from 1903,
creating from it a literary fantasy. Schreber was a lawyer
who spent long periods of his life in a mental hospital,
and Kastner allows the reader to enter into his paranoid
universe, a claustrophobic space in which concepts such
as madness and sanity are twisted, turn after turn.
Fabian Kastner
The Layman: A Demented Comedy
Albert Bonniers förlag
rights: Albert Bonniers förlag
A playful and
learned pastiche
Gabriella Håkansson’s first novel in six years is a tour de
force, both in scope, and in ambition. The novel, the first
part of two, is a historic adventure novel set in London
during the early 1800s. Young William Aldermann inherits
a palace and a great fortune after his father, Gideon, an
eccentric man obsessed with antique statues. It soon turns
out that his interest stretched not only to statues –
he was also leader of the defunct secret society Dilettanti,
worshippers of the ancient arts, seeking to refine humanity
in the spirit of the antiquity. William is tasked, by one of
his father’s more hedonist fellow members, to resurrect
the Dilettanti, and is led on a meandering intellectual
adventure across the continent. Gabriella Håkansson’s
novel is a playful and learned pastiche that has been
compared to Dickens and Umberto Eco, but it is also a
novel built around a discussion of freedom and morality –
concepts which Gabriella Håkansson has always returned
to, throughout her career as an author.
Gabriella Håkansson
Aldermann’s Heir
Albert Bonniers förlag
Rights: Nordin Agency
12
13
The Human
Spectrum
Photo: Patrik Gunnar Helin
Dramatist and author Lars Norén’s
over one thousand page-long diary
caused a real stir in the Swedish arts
world when it was published in 2008.
In his revealing book, Norén wrote
frankly about what he thought of
certain parts of the Swedish cultural
elite, and was criticised for his harsh
attacks against real individuals. But
it was also praised as a grand, poetic
masterpiece that aimed to depict the
whole contradictory spectrum of
what it means to be human, including
the very deepest depths. Now, as
the second part – which is similarly
extensive – is published, it picks up
where the last book left off. Here you
can find the same torrent of working
notes, private lives, and both trivial and
weighty thoughts – now from an aging
man who has just become a father.
Lars Norén
Diary of a Playwright 2005-2012
Albert Bonniers förlag
Rights: Margareta Pettersson
Agent & Production
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15
On 1 June 1674, 71 people were executed and
burned on a hill in Ångermanland in northern
Sweden. It is the biggest mass execution that has
taken place in Sweden during times of peace. 65 of
those executed were women, and all were charged
with witchcraft, in the wave of witch-hunting
hysteria that swept across Europe. Court hearings
often featured children as witnesses. Therése
Söderlind portrays the events from the perspectives
of different points in time: through Jacke and his
teenage daughter Veronica, who in the 1970s begins
to research the events, and through Malin, who is
imprisoned, waiting for her verdict, three hundred
years earlier. It is a consistently fascinating novel, one
that asks important questions about roots and family
relations, and what we can learn from history today.
Therése Söderlind
The Road Towards Bålberget
Wahlström & Widstrand
Rights: Partners in stories
Photo: Cato Lein. Photo right side: Anna Lena Ahlström
Lotte Laserstein, 1928. In meinem Atelier. Olja på pannå, 46 x 73 cm.
Copyright/fotograf: Anna-Carola Krausse
Fredrik Sjöberg’s previous book, the essay collection
Varför håller man på (Why Do We Do It?) was predominantly a celebration of collecting, and the almost
fanatical searching it involves. The kind of searching on
which Fredrik Sjöberg has built his entire career as an
author. But in the book he also touched upon the selfcritical issue of whether the force driving the collector
is actually narcissism; the need for validation. He picks
up this thread again in his new book, in which he traces
the lives of two relatively forgotten artists, Olof Ågren
and Lotte Laserstein. In a series of deeply personal short
essays, he uses the fates of the two artists to discuss
subjects such as loneliness, the myth of the artist, and the
need to recognise when it’s time to give up.
Fredrik Sjöberg
Give Up Today – Tomorrow it Might be Too Late
Albert Bonniers förlag
Rights: Agentur Hebel & Bindermann
16
17
Photo: Sara Moritz. Photo right side: Cato Lein
18
Kerstin has dementia, and is slowly fading away in an
old people’s home in Stockholm. On one of her visits,
her adult daughter finds a notebook from her mother’s
childhood in a Dutch colony in what is now Indonesia. It
becomes the starting point for Hanna Nordenhök’s The
White House in Simpang, a compact, lyrical and sensual
tale about power structures, violence and motherhood.
It’s where Kerstin grew up as Zus, together with her
mentally ill brother, her parents, and a nanny. While the
family slowly disintegrates it its luxuriant garden and its
white house, the colonies are beginning to break down
outside the walls.
Anna Fock’s debut novel couldn’t have been better
timed. Just as discussion over Russia’s anti-gay laws and
the intensifying violence against homosexuals reached
its peak, Absolute Zero appeared. The novel follows the
everyday lives of a group of young homosexual men
in the grey cold of St Petersburg. But even though
persecution and prejudice lurk in the background,
the picture Anna Fock paints is a nuanced one. Her
characters party, work, fall in love, cheat and are cheated
on. Among the book’s strongest elements is the tense
relationship between childhood friends Nikita and Vasily,
who choose such different paths that the breakdown of
their relationship becomes inevitable.
Hanna Nordenhök
The White House In Simpang
Norstedts
Rights: Norstedts Agency
Anna Fock
Absolute Zero
Ersatz
rights: Ersatz
19
Photo: Mehran Afshar Nederi. Photo right side: Sofia Runarsdotter
Memories
and questions
20
In her two previous books, Marjaneh Bakhtiari has
picked apart ‘multiculti’ Sweden and its various representatives
with mild satire and drastic humour. In her new novel, Bedtime
Stories For Children Who Drink, she leaves Sweden altogether
and transports the reader to today’s Tehran. We follow three
generations of a family who each have a unique relationship to
the city and its history. Bakhtiari writes about belonging and
memory, and asks which memories are private, and which are
shared in collective grief.
During the last few years, Swedish literature has
produced many autobiographical books in which sons
have written about their fathers. As author and film-maker
Kristian Petri joins the tradition, it is with a melancholy
scrutiny of a father who has been absent and disappointing,
but still very loved. Kristian Petri describes his father’s last
months in various care institutions and expresses his fury
and impotence in the face of a care system that has become
increasingly inhumane. But more than anything, his book
is about a life crisis set in motion by his father’s death,
and about the search for an absentee father who was an
unknown quantity.
Marjaneh Bakhtiari
Bedtime Stories For Children Who Drink
Ordfront
Rights: Leonhardt & Höier Literary Agency
Kristian Petri
The Father
Weyler
rights: weyler
21
Photo: Ola Kjelbye
non
fiction
Fierce
criticism
On the 18 December 2001, two
Egyptian refugees were deported from
Sweden to Egypt under degrading
conditions. The next day they were
subjected to horrifying torture in
Mubarak’s prison in Cairo. Swedish
law prohibits the deportation of
anyone at risk of torture, but the
Swedish politicians responsible denied
any involvement with the deportation.
However, a television station
conducted an investigation, revealing
that the politicians had been aware of
the entire process, and one of Sweden’s
biggest recent political scandals
unfolded. Lena Sundström’s book
is a meta-reportage, documenting
this investigative undertaking and its
sources. She directs fierce criticism at
the politicians responsible and calls to
mind the mood in Sweden and the rest
of the world in the aftermath of 9/11.
Lena Sundström
Traces
Natur & Kultur
Rights: Partners in stories
Political reportage and current affairs titles currently
dominate the non-fiction publications market. Several
books examine economically powerful families, such
as the Wallenberg and Bonnier families. Another book
turns the spotlight on European fascism in the context
of the fascism currently spreading in Europe. A passion
for truth runs through this non-fiction, a desire to get
to the bottom of Sweden, past and present.
22
23
Photo: Agneta Åkesson. Photo right side: Elis Hoffman
Fascism was probably the most
influential ideology in 20th Century
European history, and during the last
few years it has once again taken root
in many places across Europe. In this
thorough study, historian Henrik
Arnstad traces the emergence and
structure of fascism, from Italy and
Mussolini, via Nazism, to today’s far
right extremists. He also analyses the
close links between fascism, racism
and anti-feminism. Now, as fascism
is on the rise once more in many
places, this book presents a historical
argument of even greater significance.
Henrik Arnstad
fascism, Mon Amour – The Ideology
and History of Black-and-Brown
Movements
Norstedts
rights: norstedts agency
With her novel Bitterfittan (Bitter Bitch), which dealt with the lack of
equality in an apparently modern, radical marriage, Maria Sveland rapidly
became known as one of Sweden’s most active feminist voices. It’s a
vulnerable stance. Maria Sveland was subjected to an avalanche of threats
and hate mail, and even her family were targeted. The book Hatred is based
on this experience. In it, Maria Sveland explores the various forms of antifeminism in Sweden. She finds that the climate for debate has become
harsher, and that anti-feminist opinions are being legitimised. She also shows
the frequent connections between anti-feminism and racism. Hatred is one of
the year’s most hotly-debated books dealing with contemporary issues, and
led to many other female writers talking openly about the hatred they have
been exposed to online.
Maria Sveland
Hatred
Leopard förlag
Rights: Leonhardt & Höier Literary Agency
24
25
Realism revisited
The importance of the Wallenberg family for the
development of Swedish business is probably impossible
to overestimate. From the mid-1800s to now, their empire
of industrial concerns, banks and investment companies
has grown and grown. Economist and author Gunnar
Wetterberg takes, for the first time, a comprehensive
approach to the Wallenbergs, documenting their history
and their path to becoming one of Sweden’s most
powerful families. He analyses their unique position in
Swedish economic history, and sheds light on internal
conflicts and the consequences these have had for the
empire as a whole.
In his short story A Simple Heart, Gustave Flaubert
describes a dish containing a blue soap. The soap itself
holds no meaning for the story, but the very fact it is
mentioned indicates a new way of viewing the world in
literature. That is the basis for this learned, entertaining
essay by new Swedish Academy member Sara Danius,
which examines the way details started to be appear in
literature, with the birth of realism in the 1800s. Through
close readings of works by Balzac, Flaubert and Stendhal
she reinstates that much-underrated genre, realism.
Gunnar Wetterberg
The Wallenbergs: A Family Empire
Albert Bonniers förlag
Rights: Albert Bonniers Förlag
26
Photo: Sofia Runarsdotter. Photo left side: Cato Lein
The empire
Sara Danius
The Blue Soap – The Novel And The Art Of
Making Things Visible
Albert Bonniers förlag
rights: Albert Bonniers förlag
27
Photo: Ulla Montan. Photo right side: Christer Erling
Poetry also continues to be largely politically charged,
particularly works written by younger poets. Politics
and the criticism of social issues is also manifest in the
language, which is often aggressive, even in terms of
visual form. This is about breaking down structures,
about working in fragments rather than a whole.
Poetry
The voices of others
You can see yourself in the silver gloss cover of Athena Farrokhzad’s debut
poetry collection. It can hardly be an accident: White Suite deals with identity,
primarily from an ethnic perspective, and the book indirectly challenges
the reader to observe themselves. We encounter the subject of the poems, a
daughter, only through a chorus of voices belonging to her family. Her own
voice goes unheard. The family constantly decide which words are to pass her
lips, raising the question: who actually owns her story? White Suite is a lyrical
tale of structural injustices, and of violence, both physical and linguistic.
Athena Farrokhzad’s poetry takes aim with deadly one-liners,
and is among the year’s most talked-about collections of Swedish poetry.
Athena Farrokhzad
White Suite
Albert Bonniers förlag
rights: Albert Bonniers förlag
28
29
Fredrik Nyberg
Becoming Wood
Norstedts
rights: Norstedts
“You’re a grandmother now!” With those simple words, so hollow with
loss and sorrow, Elise Ingvarsson concludes her third collection of poetry
Five Minutes Of Your Life. It is directed in part to a mother who committed
suicide at a young age, leaving behind a daughter. When the daughter
becomes a mother herself, she revisits her relationship with her dead mother,
and her own role as a mum. The narrator of the poem forces herself to delve
into the most forbidden places, exploring how a mother can wish to die, even
though she has a little baby. These are formally confident, relatively direct
poems, infused with tangible pain. When some form of reconciliation is at last
achieved with the mother, it is as if one is suddenly able to breathe again.
Elise Ingvarsson
Five Minutes Of Your Life
Norstedts
rights: Norstedts
30
Photo: Ulla Montan. Photo right side: Christer Erling
Fredrik Nyberg writes musical
poetry with a unique rhythm.
Becoming Wood, his latest collection,
is also part of an artist research
project into the acoustic form of
poetry, which influences words’
onomatopoeic interactions with one
another. This collection of poetry
takes as its starting point a scrubby,
overgrown meadow, where wellknown figures from Virgil to Osama
Bin Laden crop up. In Fredrik
Nyberg’s poems there is almost
always a clear political dimension,
and Becoming Wood contains criticism
directed at the continuing dereliction
of agricultural society, and haunting
images from war-torn Serbia.
Photo: Cato Lein. Photo right side: Carl Dieker
Helena Boberg is one of the most
interesting young poets to have
emerged in recent years. Violence of
the Senses is a nervous collection: as
the title suggests, it is full of strong
images and strong feelings. Helena
Boberg redoubles the method she
introduced in her debut collection
Repuls (Repuls) – using hackneyed
poetic images and switching them
up a few notches so they take on a
new context. For instance, she sets
her poems in an idyllically blooming
fairytale landscape that is twisted
and sullied by violence and abuse.
Throughout the collection loops a
contrast between innocence and
experience. A political rage burns in
Helena Boberg’s poems, never more
so than when it comes to sexism and
the violence of men towards women.
Helena Boberg
Violence of the Senses
10-tal bok
rights: 10-tal bok
Over the years, the poet and Swedish Academy member Jesper Svenbro’s
poetry collections have become more and more clearly autobiographical. The
Book of War is no exception. It tells, across about 20 poems, the story of his
father-in-law François Llavador, born in Algeria and trained as a paratrooper
in Scotland during the Second World War. The narrator describes the way
he has carried his father-in-law’s story with him, until now unable to make
the leap and tell it. This is a story of a dramatic life, a kind of adult version
of a book for boys, with daring parachute jumps and passionate affairs. But,
the reader asks, discerning a twitch in the corner of Svenbro’s mouth, is he
leading us on? Are these tales of war true? Does it even matter? Perhaps Jesper
Svenbro is just trying to tell us that the abyss between myth and reality is
really much smaller that we think.
Jesper Svenbro
Book of War
Albert Bonniers förlag
rights: Albert Bonniers förlag
32
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Support
Support scheme for Swedish
literature in translation
The objective of this support scheme is to make it possible for
more Swedish quality literature to be published abroad. The
support scheme applies both to fiction for children and adults
and to non-fiction. One condition is that the translation must
be done directly from Swedish or any of the national minority
languages rather than via any third language.
Swedish literature means literature written in Swedish or any of
the national minority languages in Sweden.
Who can apply?
Applications for subsidies for translations to non-Nordic languages may be filed by foreign publishers. In certain cases
Swedish publishing houses that have drawn up a plan for distribution of a certain book abroad may also be eligible to apply.
Any publishing house applying for a subsidy must have both
well-documented experience of publishing quality literature as
well as professional distribution channels. If the publishing
house has not previously published Swedish literature in translation, the current publications catalogue is to be submitted
with the application. Support for translation of Swedish literature to other Nordic languages is financed by the Nordic
Council of Ministers through the Nordic Culture Point. There
is a special application form for this support scheme which is
administrated by the Arts Council.
Who cannot apply?
Neither translators nor authors may apply for translation
subsidies through the Swedish Arts Council support scheme.
What types of literature does the support scheme cover?
Applications for translation subsidies may be filed for books
in the following areas:
• prose, poetry, drama, literature for children and young
people:
• non-fiction in the area of general culture;
• essays;
• theme issues of journals and magazines including literature
translated from Swedish.
Regarding applications for drama translation subsidies, a subsidy
may be applied for on the condition that the play in question is
either going to be published in book form or performed on stage.
Irrespective of genre, the work for which a subsidy is being
applied must be of high quality in terms of both language and
literary qualities.
34
What types of literature does the support scheme not
cover?
Applications for support will not be considered for translation of:
• scholarly dissertations or research reports;
• text books, instruction manuals;
• reference books, handbooks, yearbooks;
• cookbooks, hobby literature, travel guides, etc.
• commercial literature with the potential to be widely
circulated abroad without a state subsidy.
Applications can only be filed to cover translation costs, but not
for production costs or to cover copyright matters.
What books will be given priority?
The objective of the support scheme is to raise the status of
contemporary Swedish literature in translation. Priority will
therefore be given to introduction of the work of contemporary
Swedish authors into languages where there are no previous
translations of that author’s work. Particular consideration will
be given to translations of literature for children and young
people into languages where Swedish children’s literature is
presently poorly represented.
How is an application to be filed?
Application should be filled out via the online-service. When
the application is filed, the following material is to be enclosed:
• one copy of the contract between the publishing house filing
the application and the rights holder
• one copy of the contract between the publishing house filing
the application and the translator
• The translator’s curriculum vitae if the translator has not
previously translated Swedish literature published in the
language in question
When can an application be filed?
These subsidies must be applied for before the book has been
published, and are disbursed when the Swedish Arts Council
has received four copies of the published translation and when
the conditions given below have been fulfilled.
Application deadlines are February 1, May 2 and November 1.
The application form is open four weeks before deadline.
Conditions for disbursement of a granted subsidy
Subsidies granted will be disbursed upon receipt of four copies
of the published translation by The Swedish Arts Council,
along with a written confirmation from the translator that (s)he
has received remuneration according to the contract. Subsidies
granted are always to be acknowledged in the published translation with the following text, translated into the language in
question: The cost of this translation was defrayed by a subsidy
from the Swedish Arts Council, gratefully acknowledged.
Contact: Susanne Bergström Larsson
susanne.bergstrom.larsson@kulturradet.se
Support for Translation of Swedish
Drama for Stage Performance
One objective of this support scheme is to make it possible for
more Swedish quality drama to be performed abroad. The support scheme includes Swedish plays to be performed outside
the Nordic countries. One condition is that the translation must
be done directly from Swedish or any of the national minority
languages rather than via any third language.
Swedish literature means literature written in Swedish or any of
the national minority languages in Sweden.
Application for this support scheme may only be filed by the
director or producer of a theatre outside the Nordic area where
the Swedish translation will be performed.
• There is a special form on which to apply for translation
subsidies. When the application is filed, the following
material must be appended:
• One copy of the contract between the theatre filing the
application and the rights holder
• One copy of the contract between the theatre filing the
application and the translator
• The translator’s curriculum vitae if the translator has not
previously translated Swedish plays or literature published
in the language in question.
• The subsidy must be applied for before the play is staged and
will be disbursed upon receipt of one copy of the translation
by The Swedish Arts Council, along with a written confirma tion from the translator that (s)he has received remuneration
according to the contract. Subsidies granted are always to be
acknowledged in programmes and or advertisements with
the following text, translated into the language in question:
The cost of this translation was defrayed by a subsidy from
the Swedish Arts Council, gratefully acknowledged.
Contact: Susanne Bergström Larsson
susanne.bergstrom.larsson@kulturradet.se
Literature Projects Abroad
Who can apply?
Swedish and foreign organisations and publishers are eligible to
apply for funding to support literary events and international
exchanges which promote high quality Swedish literature and
drama internationally.
What does the scheme cover?
Foreign publishers may apply for funding to help cover the cost
of inviting Swedish authors in conjunction with book launches,
literary festivals and similar events. Organisations may apply for
funding for projects or international exchanges. Projects can
include, but are not limited to, translation seminars, collaborative literary projects and themed events. Financial support may
also be awarded to information campaigns and publications
aimed at promoting Swedish literature internationally.
Applications for internal activities and projects that do not explicitly aim to promote Swedish literature or drama will not be
considered. Support may, however, be sought for projects involving authors not yet published in the country or language in
question. Translation costs may be covered by the scheme if
incurred within the framework of a project, but grants for the
translation of Swedish literature are normally administered
through the Support Scheme for Swedish Literature in Translation.
The Swedish Arts Council cannot approve funds for events that
have already taken place.
How are applications assessed?
The subsidy aims to promote high quality Swedish literature
and drama. Applications are assessed according to the quality of
the projects proposed and the ability of these to reach a diverse
audience. The introduction of first time authors and contemporary authorships are prioritised, as are children’s and young
adult literature, poetry and drama.
Criteria considered include whether proposed events are locally supported and managed by a collaborating foreign organisation and whether additional funding has been applied for from
other sources.
How to apply
Applications are made online. Applications submitted outside
of the application period or after the deadline will not be considered. Incomplete applications not fully amended within a
timeframe determined by the Swedish Arts Council will be
treated as late submissions. Applications must include a project
description, a budget, aims and objectives. The budget must
clearly specify the costs for which funding is applied.
Decisions
Decisions cannot be appealed. When grants have been allocated,
confirmation will be sent to all applicants by email. A list of
allocated grants will be published on the Swedish Arts Council’s
website.
Conditions of the funding
All proposed activities must be carried out within the timeframe specified in the application and grants must be used according to stated conditions. A full evaluative report must be
submitted to the Swedish Arts Council no later than two
months after the completion of the project. This report must
include both a detailed account of expenses and a report summarising the impact of the project. Should the proposed plans
change, the Swedish Arts Council must be informed without
delay. Such changes may lead to funding being reclaimed. If
the recipient discontinues planned activities prematurely, all
unused funds must be returned.
The recipient must acknowledge the support received from the
Swedish Arts Council in all marketing and information material
related to the project and include The Swedish Arts Council
logo where appropriate.
Claiming funds
Once a grant has been awarded, funds can be transferred to the
account specified in the application on receipt of a payment
order.
Contact: Jan Kärrö
jan.karro@kulturradet.se
35
Agentur Literatur
Hebel & Bindermann
Mariannenstraße 9-10
DE-10999 Berlin
+49 30 34707769
Gudrun Hebel
gudrun.hebel@agentur-literatur.de
Susan Bindermann
Susan.bindermann@agentur-literatur.de
Albert Bonniers förlag
Box 3159
SE-103 63 Stockholm
+46 8 696 86 20
info@abforlag.bonnier.se
www.albertbonniersforlag.se
Brombergs
Hantverkargatan 26
SE-112 21 Stockholm
Janina Rak, Foreign Rights
janina.rak@brombergs.se
+46 8 562 620 84
www.brombergs.se
Bokförlaget Forum
Box 3159
SE-103 63 Stockholm
+46 8 696 84 40
info@forum.se
www.forum.se
Hedlund Literary Agency
Box 2262
SE-103 16 Stockholm
Magdalena Hedlund
+46 70-669 05 68
magdalena@hedlundagency.se
Johanna Kinch
+46 70-713 42 07
johanna@hedlundagency.se
Susanne Widén
+46 76-644 06 48
susanne@hedlundagency.se
www.hedlundagency.se
36
Leopard förlag
S:t Paulsgatan 11
118 46 Stockholm
+46 8 20 31 40
info@leopardforlag.se
www.leopardforlag.se
Margareta Petersson
Agent & Produktion
Gävlegatan 1
113 30 Stockholm
+46 73 674 57 22
maggan.petersson@comhem.se
Natur och Kultur
Box 27323
SE-102 54 Stockholm
+46 8 453 87 35
info@nok.se
www.nok.se
Nordin Agency
Box 4022
SE-102 61 Stockholm
Joakim Hansson
Tel: +46 40 6116939
joakim@nordinagency.se
Lina Salazar
Cell: +46 40 733 916588
lina@nordinagency.se
Anna Frankl
Cell: +46 706 636204
anna@nordinagency.se
Henny Holmqvist
Tel: +46 40 6116939
henny@nordinagency.se
www.nordinagency.se
Norstedts Agency
P.O. Box 2052
SE-103 12 Stockholm
+46 10 744 22 00
Linda Altrov Berg
linda.altrovberg@norstedts.se
Catherine Mörk
catherine.mork@norstedts.se
www.norstedtsagency.se
Norstedts förlag
Box 2052
SE-103 12 Stockholm
+46 10 744 22 00 info@norstedts.se
www.norstedts.se
Ordfront förlag
Box 17506
SE-118 91 Stockholm
+46 8 462 44 00
info@ordfront.se
www.ordfront.se
Partners in Stories
Ludvigsbergsgatan 20 118 23 Stockholm
Jonas Axelsson
+46 70 397 39 38
jonas@partnersinstories.se
Agnes Cavallin
+46 733 79 81 50
agnes@partnersinstories.se
Piratförlaget
Kaptensgatan 6
SE-114 57 Stockholm
+46 8-412 13 50
info@piratforlaget.se
www.piratforlaget.se
Wahlström & Widstrand
Box 3159
SE-103 63 Stockholm
+46 8 696 84 80
info@wwd.se
www.wwd.se
Weyler förlag
Box 2262
SE-103 16 Stockholm
+46 8 648 76 656
info@weylerforlag.se
www.weylerforlag.se
Swedish Arts Council
Box 27215
SE-102 53 Stockholm
Susanne Bergström Larsson
+46 8 519 264 83
susanne.bergstrom.larsson@kulturradet.se
Jan Kärrö
+46 8 519 264 61
jan.karro@kulturradet.se
Zoi Santikos
+46 8 519 264 87
zoi.santikos@kulturradet.se
www.swedishliterature.se
© The Swedish Arts Council 2013
Text: Annina Rabe
Translations: Nichola Smalley
Graphic design: Studio Mats Hedman
Editor: Susanne Bergström Larsson
Printed by Wikströms Tryckeri AB
from the cover of The Layman: A Demented
Comedy by Fabian Kastner. see page 13
Ersatz
Sibyllegatan 5
SE-114 51 Stockholm
Anna Bengtsson
+46 8-669 64 84
anna.bengtsson@ersatz.se
Ola Wallin
+46 8 669 65 76
ola.wallin@ersatz.se
www.ersatz.se
Leonhardt & Høier
Literary Agency
Studiestræde 35A
DK-1455 Copenhagen K
+45 33 13 25 23
Anneli Høier
anneli@leonhardt-hoier.dk
www.leonhardt-hoier.dk
Illustration: Edvard Derkert
10-tal bok
Box 19 074
SE-104 32 Stockholm
+46 8 612 10 49
Madeleine Grive
m.grive@10tal.se
www.10tal.se
from Give Up Today – Tomorrow it Might be
Too Late by Fredrik Sjöberg. see Page 16