ISLAND OF THE DOOMED: “75 years ago, Dagerman wrote a book for our times …”
Stig Dagerman’s novel Island of the Doomed is published in Russia, 75 years after its first release. Not surprising at all, writes Bengt Söderhäll, culture correspondent of the Swedish daily Arbetarbladet, as he tells the story of Dagerman’s book about humanity in distress. (article translated by Lo Dagerman) “Dagerman’s novel about a stranded humanity ‘is a novel for our times’, […]
Stellan Skarsgård on THE MAKING OF MAN
There is so much in THE MAKING OF A MAN (documentary, 48 min, 2019) that greatly interests me. As an avid fan of Stig Dagerman’s writing, I could listen to Lo for hours talking about him. But I also appreciate the central question in the film about the meaning of a hero, and how facts get whitewashed to fabricate […]
THE MAKING OF A MAN – New Doc on Festival Circuit!
Announcing the September 2020 world premiere, at the Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival, of a film that is a labor of love!! Told across time and space (postwar France & Sweden, present day United States), THE MAKING OF A MAN creatively intercuts interviews, archival footage and segments of the classic, searing and brutal play about […]
Lichtman on Wedding Worries
Johannes Lichtman Johannes Lichtman (Such Good Work, Simon & Schuster) reviews Wedding Worries. Excerpts from Tin House Winter Reading 2018 Issue 78. Read full review here […] Wedding Worries is a polyphonic novel that takes place over twenty-four hours surrounding a country wedding. At the time I first read it, Wedding Worries had yet to be translated into English (though revered in Sweden and hailed […]
The case of [Khashoggi]
The following excerpt is from a speech by Stig Dagerman given at a rally in 1947 to protest the murder of Bulgarian opposition leader Nicola Petkov. In the translation below, Petkov’s name has been replaced by that of Jamal Khashoggi. “… Each and everyone who takes the life of an opponent attacks not only this […]
Amos Oz: Recipient of Stig Dagerman Award 2018 – Acceptance Remarks
Dear Members of the Jury of the Stig Dagerman Prize. Dear representatives of the Älvkarleby Municipality, my dear publishers and editors, Dear Friends, Dear Guests: How I wish I could be with you today and visit Stig Dagerman’s Älvkarleby. Thank all of you personally for bestowing this wonderful prize on my works. Personal circumstances prevent me […]
Our Need for Consolation Is Insatiable … (film text excerpts)
Original title in Swedish: Vårt behov av tröst är omättligt … (1952). The following excerpts are narrated by Stellan Skarsgård in the short film Our Need for Consolation (2012) by Dan Levy Dagerman. Text selection and screen adaptation by Lo Dagerman, Dan Levy Dagerman and Brian Levy based on a draft translation by Steven Hartman. I have no belief and […]
“Wedding Worries and Other Upsets”
In this essay from 1950, Stig reflects on the writing of his novel Wedding Worries and his creative process at large . Stig with his grandparents at the farm ca 1931 Late one evening in 1931, I went into a stable loft on the farm in Älvkarleby in search of a lost kitten. It wasn’t there and […]
In Defense of the Politics of the Impossible – The Case of World Citizens for Peace
La Politica dell’Impossibile, a well-received recent Italian collection of Stig Dagerman’s political articles (Iperborea, 2016). The following article from the collection is on The World Citizen movement for peace spearheaded by American Garry Davis. “Politics has been called the art of the possible. It is an apt epithet because that which is possible is what is the most reduced and circumscribed […]
Do We Have Faith in Humankind?
— Stig Dagerman, 1950. His response to a magazine question posed to six authors. To speak of humanity is to speak of oneself. In his relentless indictment of humanity at large, the individual himself is a part. Only death can separate him from his charges. So even as judge, he will always be found on the […]