Features

Birgitta Holm discusses the recent interest in Selma Lagerlöf, and how a new generation of readers are discovering the universal genius that she was.
Translated by Sarah Death and Linda Schenck.

Anna Maria Hellberg Moberg goes back to her writing roots, researching the literary heritage and contemporary authors of her native Värmland.

Ulla Forsén explores the extensive, trans-institutional efforts that helped to secure Gothenburg's status as a City of Literature, and the long-term commitments that this will involve.
Translated by Linda Schenck.

Ian Giles, chair of the Swedish-English Literary Translators' Association, looks back on a special year in the life of SELTA.

Elin Klemetz takes an in-depth look at what literary agents working in Sweden do, and whether having one is always in a writer's best interest.
Translated by Ian Giles.

Elin Klemetz explores how agents adjust their approach and terms according to an author’s situation.
Translated by Ian Giles.

Bradley Harmon reflects upon Jila Mossaed’s Swedish poetry, exploring freedom, survival and the breath of poetry, and the possibilities and limitations of writing in a new language.
By Bradley Harmon.

Before the war the Swedish writer Sara Stridsberg had never had any contact with her Ukrainian publisher. When Russia invaded Ukraine she sent an email. Here she writes about the exchange that followed, the family that was forced to flee, and the place of literature in the ongoing war.
Translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner.

We open up our reviews archive to highlight some of the recent gems in Swedish-language literature, through lists curated by genre and age group.

Alexander Keiller discusses the ever-changing shape of the subtitling industry.

In this recent column published on the eve of war, Anna-Lena Laurén explores the crisis in Ukraine through the prism of her own family history.
Translated by D.E. Hurford.

Anna Maria Hellberg Moberg investigates the phenomenon of self-translation, its advantages and pitfalls.

We report on Gothenburg Book Fair's first hybrid fair.

We present our readers' picks of books they would most like to see available in English, from tense political thrillers to experimental fiction and affecting memoirs.

Translator and physician John Litell discusses the joys of translating Andrea Lundgren's short stories, winning the Peirene Stevns Prize, and the challenges of completing a debut literary translation while working in intensive care during a pandemic.

We present some of the latest shortlists and winners in Swedish-language fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children's fiction.

Carin Bacho and Catharina Lantz of Koja Agency discuss the ins and outs of selling children's book rights, the key to a good children's or YA book, and the books that inspired them as children.

Swedish Book Review talks to Duncan J. Lewis, Director of Nordisk Books, about what makes a 'Nordisk' book, indie publishing in the UK, and redressing the balance of perceptions of contemporary Nordic literature.