Swedish Writers on Writing

Swedish Writers on Writing, the eighth book in the Writer's World series, offers many points of entry for scholars, writers, creative writing students, and general readers. Although the anthology is not intended as a crash course in Swedish literary history, it includes many important facets of the tradition, highlighting Sweden’s poetry, film, working-class novels, and children’s stories.

Names that should be well known to American readers include playwright August Strindberg (Master Olaf, Miss Julie, Selma Lagerlöf (the first female author to win the Nobel Prize and author of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils), Astrid Lindgren (author of Pippi Longstocking), Tove Jansson (creator of Moomin), filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander), and Nobel Prize-winning poet Tomas Tranströmer.

In addition, readers will discover many Swedish authors they have never heard of. A variety of genres is represented, with an emphasis on essays and autobiographical writing. The pieces, which date from 1909 (an interview with August Strindberg) to 2010 (manifestos by young authors), are all considered contemporary to some extent. All have vital information to share on the craft and magic of writing.

As with other books in the Writer’s World series, Swedish Writers on Writing has an introduction and introductory headnotes for each author. Writer's World titles include Mexican Writers on Writing, Nineteenth-Century American Writers on Writing, Chinese Writers on Writing, Hebrew Writers on Writing, Irish Writers on Writing, Polish Writers on Writing, and Romanian Writers on Writing.

Swedish-born Malena Mörling is the author of two books of poetry: Ocean Avenue and Astoria. She has also published translations of work by Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer. She received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2007 and a Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2010. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

Jonas Ellerström is a writer, translator, art critic, and publisher. In 1983 he founded Ellerströms Publishing House, which has released more than 650 titles. He is the author of several poetry and essay collections, an alternative history of Swedish poetry, and a book about chess. His translations include Swedish versions of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Arthur Rimbaud’s Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell), and poetry by Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates. Ellerström has twice received the Karin and Karl Ragnar Gierow Prize from the Swedish Academy. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden.

Together, Mörling and Ellerström have translated Philip Levine’s 1933 into Swedish and Edith Södergran’s poetry collection On Foot I Wandered through the Solar Systems into English. They are also the co-editors and translators of the anthology The Star by My Head: Poets from Sweden.