American author of the bi-lingual novel Numera negerkung (King of the Cannibals) (Kabusa 2009), written in Swedish and English. The book tells the tale of Harley, who signs up for the war in Iraq but gets cold feet and goes AWOL to Sweden, instead. We read his school essays in Swedish, which in the beginning are ungrammatical, as well as his letters home in English, which give us a different perspective of who he is. By the end it’s his English which is messed up.
In 2009 my novel won the dubious honor of being kicked out of the Swedish national literary awards competition (Augustpriset) for not being Swedish enough. Yup, they gave me the boot. They didn’t like the fact that half of it was in English.
But maybe getting the boot is to be expect from somebody born in the Rubber Capital of the World: I was born in Akron, Ohio 1971, and currently live in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2009 I was one of the three founders of Debutantbloggen.se, a popular Swedish blog which discusses issues concerning first-time authors. As a teenager I wrote journalism and opinion essays for the Akron Beacon Journal and Cleveland Plain Dealer, then after university I worked as an artist and art teacher in Philadelphia for a few years. Nowadays, in addition to my own writing, I teach English Literature, Creative Writing and Novel-Writing at Stockholm’s English-language upper-secondary magnet school. I’ve got a master’s in both Education and English Literature from the University of Stockholm, and my theses can be found at the Royal Library of Sweden:
1. Child-death and suffering in children’s fantasy: from Water babies to Unearthers / Kevin Frato
I’m a contributor to the University of Stockholm’s literary journal Stockholm Syndromes, and I hatched the idea for –– and am a co-author of –– the collective story-cycle Avståndet mellan written by Swedish, Norwegian and American authors (X Publishing 2012).
Another short story is set to be published by Swedish publisher Myrios förlag in the fall of 2012, and in the spring of 2013 another Swedish publisher Natur and Kultur will be publishing my first high school English textbook. Who would have guessed.
Oh by the way, every now and then somebody wants to order Numera negerkung from the States. You can ask me, or the friendly staff at Hedengrens Bookshop.
Reviews and interviews (unfortunately all in Swedish):
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november 9, 2011 den 8:55 e m
Angela
Very intriguing–I’m a published novelist living in Stockholm, and I’d love to meet more English language fiction writers. My first novel, The Queens of K-town, was published in the U.S. in 2007, and my second is nearing completion. I’ve been really wanting to find a literary community here, and this class sounds like a possibility. I’d be so grateful for a heads up on other writing groups and workshops too. I’ll keep checking back and hunting around town. Thanks for posting about it here.
november 9, 2011 den 9:53 e m
Kevin Frato
Angela, great to hear from you. I know exactly how you feel, searching for a community of writers. I’ll post more information on the class as it becomes available, and if I hear about any other group, I’ll spread the word!