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This issue of Swedish Book
Review sees some major changes. Dr Laurie Thompson,
who has edited the journal largely single-handedly for
no less than twenty years, has decided to hang up his
editor’s cap and retire to the pavilion to concentrate
on his own translation work. Under his captainship, SBR
has established an excellent reputation among translators,
publishers, scholars and other Swedophiles. We salute
his outstanding achievement and wish him well. We also
thank all those at the University of Wales Lampeter (formerly
St. David’s University College) who have provided
SBR with secretarial and other assistance over the years,
Ann Mackie in particular, and Cambrian Printers in Aberystwyth
who have physically produced the journal until now. |
Readers will note a
new editorial address, a slightly new size and a new design
to SBR. Production and distribution of the journal has now
moved to Norvik Press at the University of East Anglia in
Norwich. Individual subscribers please be aware of the new
subscription arrangements. SBR continues to receive
financial support from various cultural bodies, particularly
the Swedish Institute, and we are very grateful for this.
SBR’s coverage will be unchanged and we encourage all
potential contributors, whether from Britain, the USA, Sweden
or elsewhere, to continue sending in their material.
In this issue we feature
three Swedish writers who will be appearing at the London
Book Fair in March 2003. Ingrid Elam is a
leading critic and cultural journalist. Her essay puts modern
Swedish writing, including the novels of Torbjörn
Flygt and Mikael Niemi featured
in the last issue of SBR, in a wider context and introduces
the two other visiting writers. Ellen Mattson’s
novels in the classic narrative tradition have won critical
acclaim; Snö (Snow)
is her first historical novel. Lars Jakobson,
by contrast, writes fascinating and perplexing books about
the nature of truth, which elude categorization but could
perhaps be called docufiction. We also feature an extract
from the prizewinning “detective” novel Camera
by Eva-Marie Liffner, soon to be published
in English, and an intriguing short story by contemporary
Finland-Swedish writer Susanne Ringell. The
selection of prose is complemented by the environmentally
aware poetry of the prolific Elisabet Hermodsson. |
