There is a great international interest in Swedish literature. The Swedish Arts Council is the government agency with responsibility for promoting Swedish literature in translation. Through Swedish Literature Exchange we coordinate a number of efforts within the field.
This grant aims to promote the international dissemination of high-quality Swedish literature and Swedish drama and to enable international exchanges in the field.
This grant promotes international exchange and skill improvement activities among translators of Swedish literature and drama.
This grant aims to promote translation of Swedish literature into other, non-Nordic, languages.
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Fundig schemes and lists over allocated grants
How we promote Swedish literature in translation
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Funding schemes for translation and promotion
Find out more about our grants and activities for translators
Swedish children’s fiction has a special kind of magic. Whether tranquil or wild, rooted in reality or bursting the bounds of the imagination, it nearly always strikes the same fundamental note: a profound respect for children as thinking people.
This booklet is for everyone interested in what’s happening in contemporary Swedish literature. You will discover promising debut authors as well as established voices. What they have in common is that they are all deemed to have the potential to reach more readers beyond Sweden’s borders.
In the third funding round of 2026, grants have been awarded to 20 projects promoting Swedish literature and drama across a wide geographical area, from Australia, Japan and Argentina to countries throughout Europe. We are pleased to see that our initiatives focusing on poetry and exchanges with the Republic of Korea have resulted in new projects.
It has sometimes been difficult to access the Swedish Arts Council’s website in recent weeks. To protect the website from denial-of-service attacks, we have adjusted our security systems. The website is now working normally again.
With more than 50 events featuring Swedish authors, Stories From Sweden is now in its second year. We asked Martin Colthorpe, director of Modern Culture, to tell us more about the project and its work to promote Swedish literature in translation.
In The House with the Two Towers (Huset med de två tornen), Maciej Zaremba dissects the events of his parents’ lives and how their war experiences led to an inevitable separation. Janny Middelbeek-Oortgiesen, who translates into Dutch, recommends a book that draws a finely nuanced portrait of childhood in post-war Poland.
Who Does Suzanne Osten Think She Is? is more than a magnificent and colourful portrait of one of the greatest theatre and film directors of our time. It is a portrait of a zeitgeist. Ana Valdés, who translates into Spanish, recommends Suzanne Osten’s autobiography published in 2021.
Emöke Andersson Lipcsey, who translates into Hungarian, recommends a book based on the life of the historical figure Johann Christian Woyzeck. The author Steve Sem-Sandberg uses W.’s fate to paint a shocking, true picture of how the brutality of war can affect and warp the character of the individual.