Biographical Notes

For Contemporary Swedish Authors and Their Translators

Writers

CHRISTINA SJÖBLAD is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Lund and the editor of Victoria Benedictsson's diaries, in Swedish entitled Stora boken (The Big Book, in three volumes). She is a member of the editorial board of Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria (Nordic Women's Literary History, in three volumes), and her publications include Min vandring dag för dag: Kvinnors Dagböcker frå 1700-talet (My Wandering Day to Day: Women's Diaries from the 1700s) and an edited version of Benedictsson's comedy Teorier (Theories). Her dissertation is entitled "Baudelaire's väg till Sverige" (Baudelaire's Road to Sweden).

MARIE HERMANSON was born in in 1956 Gothenburg, where she specialized in sociology, literature, and journalism. After her university studies she worked as a writer for newspapers, radio, and TV. In 1986 she published her first book, a story collection called Det finns ett håll I verkligheten (There is a Hole in Reality), featuring elements of realism, dream, fantasy, and the supernatural, also to be found in her subsequent works. These include Snövit (Snow White, 1990), Tvillingsystrarna (The Twin Sisters, 1993), Värddjuret (The Parasite's Host), 1995), and Musselstranden (The Mussel Shore, 1998). The last of these novels leans more toward realism yet is marked by traces of fantasy and, like earlier works, offers images of childhood and disintegrating families.

ELISABETH RYNELL was born in 1954 in Stockholm. Her father was a professor of English and her mother a nurse. After completing the comprehensive school in and around the capital city, she worked as an au pair in London and later settled in the north of Sweden, in Lycksele. Ms. Rynell debuted with the poetry collection Lyrsvit m.m. med gnöl (Poetry Suite etc. with Grumbling, 1975). Her first novel, entitled Veta hut (For Shame, 1979) appeared in 1979. Nattliga samtal (Night Conversations, 1990) contains both poems and prose pieces. A recurring theme in the volume is the grieving for a life companion hastily taken away. Her last book, the novel Hohaj (1997), set in Norrland, Sweden's northern wilderness, has a rather mythical quality. Ms .Rynell's writing is distinguished by a strong emotional intensity, openness and sensuality. Other works include the poetry volumes Onda dikter (Evil Poems, 1980), Sorgvingesång (Sorrow Winged Songs, 1985), Sjuk fågel (Sick Bird, 1988), and Öckenvandrare (Desert Wanderer, 1993), and the novel En berättelse om Loka (A Tale About Loka, 1990).

ANNA KARIN PALM was born in Stockholm in 1961. The half year she spent studying in England as a teenager left its mark on her writing. Later she studied at the University of Uppsala, earning a doctorate in literary studies, and served as an editor of the magazine Åttiotal (Eighties). Her first novel published in 1991: Faunen (The Faun), set in England, consists of three separate stories from different time period which nevertheless work together as whole. Myths and tales inspired this novel as well as the story collection Utanför bilden (Outside the Picture, 1992), which also contains a number of observations about works of art. On World Book Day in 1998 all students of the Swedish gymnasium school (= senior high school + junior college) received as a gift a volume containing a novella by Anna-Karin Palm entitled "Septemberrosor" (September Roses) from her collection Utanför bilden. The author's other works include the novel Målarens döttrar (The Painter's Daughters, 1997), the story collection Lekplats (Playground, 1999), and the picture book Vildvinter (Vild Winter, 1999), illustrated by Anna Bengtsson.

Translators

VERNE MOBERG is a teacher, translator, and editor and has taught Swedish and Scandinavian literature at the universities of Wisconsin and Virginia, at UCLA, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Columbia University. Among the Scandinavian authors she has translated are Göran Palm, Sven Delblanc, Kristina Lugn, Edvard Rønning, and Victoria Benedictssson. She has worked in publishing in both Stockholm and New York and was awarded the Inger Sjöberg Prize in 1997 by the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

SONIA WICHMANN is a doctoral candidate in Scandinavian Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. She has an M.A. from the University of Washington and studied Finnish and Swedish language and literature as an undergraduate at Columbia University. She received the 1995 American-Scandinavian Foundation award for her translation of Hagar Olsson's Chitambo.

STINA KATCHADOURIAN is a Finland-Swedish author and literary translator who lives in California. Her last book is Great Need Over the Water: The Letters of Theresa Huntington Ziegler, Missionary to Turkey, 1898 - 1905. (Gomidas Institute Books, 1999). Her translations of Edith Södergran's poetry have been published in three editions by Fjord Press. Next fall, Sun and Moon Press will publish her translation of Nordic Prize-winning poet Tua Forsstrom's collection Efter att ha tillbringat en natt bland hästar (After Having Spent a Night Among Horses).