New Swedish Books, autumn 2020 1
New Swedish Books 4 THE CRITICS In three panel di
scussions, recorded by Swedish Literature Exchange, 11 critics present their favourites from this year’s publications. The conversations are divided by genre: fiction, books for children and young adults, and non-fiction. You can watch the films on our website, www.swedishliterature.se. The conversations are subtitled in English so as to make it easy to follow what’s being said. All of the books that inspired the critics are also presented here in written form. Watch, listen and read! Jenny Högström is a critic, translator and writer living in Gothenburg. Her criticism is published in daily newspapers including, for example, Aftonbladet Kultur, HD/Sydsvenskan and Göteborgs-Posten. In 2015 Högström debuted with the erotic novel Achtung Blitzkrieg, illustrated by Lars Krantz. Hanna Jedvik is an arts journalist, critic and writer with previous experience working for the Swedish public radio (SR) and television (SVT) as well as the newspaper GöteborgsPosten. Her latest young adult novel På andra sidan bron was published in August 2020. Johanna Stenlund runs one of Sweden’s most popular book blogs @barnensboktips. Since 2016 she has surveyed and reviewed current publications of children’s and young adult books in Swedish. She also freelances as a ‘reading promoter’, giving book tips on the radio and in printed media, as well as running digital book clubs for children. Lotta Olsson has worked at the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter since 1987 and from 2001 has intermittently been the editor of children’s and young adult book reviews. Additionally she has her own column where, every other week, she recommends her favourite books – often crime, popular literature or classics. Malin Nauwerck is a literature critic as well as a culture editor. She is also a researcher in comparative literature at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books, where she is responsible for a course on writing children’s book criticism and is leading the first ever research project on Swedish author Astrid Lindgren’s original manuscripts. Yukiko Duke is a literary critic, translator and the artistic director of the literary festival ‘Stockholm Literature’. Jonas Thente is the literary editor of the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter and a literary translator from English, Danish and Norwegian. He was previously a researcher in literature at the University of Lund and an editor at the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper. Helena Granström is an author who has studied both theoretical physics and mathematics. Her 2008 debut was the essay Alltings mått. Since then Granström has published work across several different genres, most recently the novel Betydelsen av kärlek. Her writing regularly appears on the culture pages of the newspapers Expressen, Svenska Dagbladet and Sydsvenskan, and she is a frequent contributor on Swedish Public Radio (SR). Henrik Brändén is a science writer and lecturer in biomedical natural sciences with a background in immunology research. He has produced several textbooks and works of popular science Ingrid Elam is a professor emerita of literary composition and a non-fiction writer. She is also a literary critic at the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter and on Swedish television. Between 1988 and 2000 she was the culture editor of three daily newspapers, among them Göteborgs-Posten and Dagens Nyheter. From 2012 until 2018 she was the Dean of the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts at the University of Gothenburg. Moa Matthis is a non-fiction author and critic. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature and is at present Senior Lecturer at Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design. Photo: Peter Cederling Photo: Johan Åhström Photo: Hans Orstadius Photo: Johannes W Berg Photo: Ulrika Campbell Photo: Caroline Andersson Photo: Natalie Grepp Photo: Mattias Burel Photo: Viktor Gårdsäter Photo: Swedish Arts Council Photo: Annika von Hausswolff