Swedish journalist and writer Elinor Torp receives the Stig Dagerman Award for shining a light at the underbelly of Swedish welfare society, in the spirit of Stig Dagerman, making visible illegal labor practices in the use of foreign and non-unionized workers.

Carina Rydberg, author

Swedish writer Carina Rydberg receives the Stig Dagerman Award for her unrelenting literary honesty and belief in the power of words. In 2022, after a long period of silence, she published a new novel, Vitt slödder, to much acclaim.

Maryja Kalesnikava, musician and political activist

The Belarusian musician and political activist Maryja Kalesnikava is the recipient of the 2022 Stig Dagerman Award for her outstanding courage in the fight for the democratic rights of the individual against the criminal power and a state that, instead of protecting its citizens, persecutes and imprisons them.

No award given

Magda Gad, journalist

Swedish war journalist Magda Gad receives the 2020 Stig Dagerman Award for her multifaceted and profound reporting that provides a much needed alternative in today’s black&white and polarized media. … Her ambition to dig deep and avoid oversimplification in dialogues about power and powerless, about politics and the individual, bears a close relationship to the type of literary journalism provided by Stig Dagerman from Europe at the end of WWII.

Britta Marakatt-Labba, textile artist

Britta Marakatt-Labba receives the Dagerman Award for her part mythical, part realistic, rebellious embroidered images that depict the history and contemporary life of the Sámi people of northern Europe.

Amos Oz, Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual

Amos Oz receives the Dagerman Award for his humanistic, diverse oeuvre exploring human vulnerability and, given the turbulent history of Israel, for his advocacy for peace and coexistence in the drawn-out Israel/Palestine conflict.

Anders Kompass , Swedish UN whistle-blower

Anders Kompass receives the Dagerman Award for his courage, and disregard for personal consequences, speaking up for the children of the Central African Republic who were sexually violated by UN forces.

Adonis, Syrian-Lebanese poet

Adonis receives the Dagerman Award for his body of work where passion for Arabic poetry, beyond the claims of religious or political currents, uncovers the liberating essence of the art form.

Suzanne Osten, Swedish writer, director, filmmaker

Suzanne Osten receives the Dagerman Award for her groundbreaking work with children’s theater elevating its status both in Sweden and abroad.

Anders Bodegard, translator from French and Polish into Swedish

Anders Bodegard receives the Dagerman Award for his remarkable and influential oeuvre of translations where he builds a bridge between different cultural and language identities.

Ingen Människa Är Illegal (No One Is Illegal)

Ingen Människa Är Illegal (No One Is Illegal) is a Swedish youth network whose mission is to help illegal immigrants to Sweden stay in the country. IMÄI receives the award because its members act in the deeply humanist spirit of Stig Dagerman; bravely going against the grain and incorporating methods of civil disobedience to show solidarity with those of us who are the most vulnerable and without rights. Read more.

Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian human rights activist, writer, and psychiatrist

Nawal El Saadawi receives the Dagerman Award as she through her life-long commitment is demonstrating the meaning of freedom, its goals and its obligations, thus provoking insight to all of us into the essence and price of freedom.

J.M.G. Le Clézio, French writer

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio fills the white paper of his books with the most beautiful combinations of words that spring from an acute awareness of the unjust and unnecessary conditions of the most vulnerable and rejected of people. In his literary testimony, we can all see ourselves, our time, our place, our own vulnerability and our freedom.

Göran Palm, Swedish writer

Göran Palm receives the Dagerman Award for his writing that has deepened and expanded the reach of free expression to voices that we have never before been able to be heard.

Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian writer

Elfriede Jelinek receives the Dagerman Award because of her writing that so completely expresses our times. In her extensive text-surfaces Heidegger meets CNN and Greek gods are paired with modern day icons; her writing is one that borrows and steals, connects and breaks apart; writing where myth is deconstructed and even Disney’s chipmunks get their own essay. Everything is executed through a frontal attack of language that allows surface to become depth and depth to become surface in order to provoke us to become participants, to take a position, to THINK.

Yasar Kemal, Turkish writer

Writer and journalist Yasar Kemal receives the Dagerman Award for having used his words and language, relentlessly without compromise for half a century, as a possible human path toward lasting peace and freedom.