USA:
HEAVEN IS NEAR – Lo Dagerman on her book about Stig Dagerman and actress Anita Björk at
the University of Washington, the Swedish Club and the annual conference of the Society for
Advanced Scandinavian Studies in Seattle.
France:
STIG DAGERMAN SELECTED LETTERS (Lettres Choisies, Actes Sud), preface by Claude Le
Manchec, widely reviewed.
A MOTH TO A FLAME (Enfant brûlé), stage adaptation by director Noëmie Ksicova, Odéon
Théâtre de L’Europe in Paris, followed by an evening with Noëmie Ksicova discussing the play.
Her play tours France 202-2023.
Writers Fatou Diome, Aris Fioretos, Claude le Manchec and musician Aret Madilian of
Deleyaman discuss Stig's "Notre besoin de consolation est impossible à rassassier" following a
screening of Dan Levy Dagerman's short film VÅRT BEHOV AV TRÖST (French subtitles), Swedish
Institute in Paris in collaboration with Le Sorbonne.
THE TIMELESS STIG DAGERMAN, seminar organized by the Scandinavian faculty at the
Sorbonne, Odéon 6e.
Germany:
A MOTH TO A FLAME (Guggolz Verlag), review in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Morocco:
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE and Other Texts by and about Stig Dagerman by
Karim Haddady, writer, translator and journalist, in Arabic, The Rabat International Book Salon.
Sweden:
STIG DAGERMAN AWARD 2024 to journalist Elinor Torp who examines labor conditions for non-
unionized and foreign workers.
USA:
“The Unlikely Posthumous Life of a Prodigy’s Typewriter”, essay by Diego Courchay, Delacourte
Review in
collaboration with LitHub.
England:
TO KILL A CHILD, Stig Dagerman’s iconic short story in litmag Vestoy.
France:
A dossier on STIG DAGERMAN, including an interview with author JMG Le Clézio, revue Europe.
SUITE BIRGITTA in French translation by Philippe Bouquet (Feux).
THE MUSICIAN’S CAP (Le Casquette du musician), miniplay, translation by Philippe Bouquet
(Éditions Belloni).
31, c’est peu Stig Dagerman 1923-1954 by Christophe Fourier (Fosse aux ours)
Le rire caché de Stig Dagerman by Claude Le Manchec (Gingko).
American-Armenian/French music group Deleyaman with actress Fanny Ardant perform OUR
NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE (in French). Same performance in Normandie with
actress Maruschka Detmers.
Italy:
STIG DAGERMAN 100, Radio broadcast to honor centennial.
Spain:
Homage to STIG DAGERMAN at Festival Sala Joven by El Teatro Quique San Francisco.
Russia:
GERMAN AUTUMN in Russian translation by Natalia Press (Limbakh Publishing).
Sweden:
STIG DAGERMAN’s writing and life receives many tributes in Sweden through many media:
theater performances, concerts, and a sculpture dedicated to his memory in the village of his
birth (facebook for details).
GERMAN AUTUMN, stage adaptation by Stig Hansén, directed by Anna Takanen opens to rave
reviews. English review in The Theatre Times, followed by a reading in Berlin.
WEDDING WORRIES, new Swedish edition (Norstedts), preface by Lo Dagerman.
The LORD WHOM I ROWED, graphic novel by David Reviati in Swedish (Epix).
HEAVEN IS NEAR – Lo Dagerman about her parents Stig Dagerman and actress Anita Björk;
reviewed in The Swedish Book Review. English translation in 2025.
USA:
BIRGITTA SUITE, poem translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson, Asheville Poetry Review Vol 29.
Three shorter Dagerman POEMS: “To the Dogs”, “The Long Lake Lies Shimmering” and “A
Flower Opens” translated by Nany Naomi Carlson, Loch Raven Review net.
ISLAND OF THE DOOMED, review on youtube.
France:
Evening honoring Dagerman translator Philipp Bouquet, Paris, organized by Les éditions Belloni
and Le livre écarlate.
“Mon ami Stig Dagerman”, author Christophe Fourier, Broadcast Radio France.
Portugal:
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION, short film by Dan Levy Dagerman, UNESCO Sustainability
Conference, Lisbon.
Israel:
GERMAN AUTUMN in Hebrew (Persimmon).
Mexico:
“The Burnt Child and the Typewriter” by Diego Courchay, Mexican LitMag NEXOS.
Sweden:
THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T CRY, short film by Emil Jonsson based on Stig Dagerman’s short
story. English subtitles.
The Worker pays homage to STIG DAGERMAN and his support of a free and independent press.
STIG DAGERMAN AWARD 2022 to imprisoned Belarusian activist and musician Maryja
Kalesnikava.
In her new book on the art of fiction, Alice McDermott includes her preface to Stig’s short story collection SLEET (Godine 2013), where she writes: “An imagination that appeals to ‘an unreasonable degree of sympathy’ is precisely what makes Dagerman’s fiction so evocative. Evocative not, as one might expect, of despair, or bleakness, or existential angst, but of compassion, fellow-feeling, even love.” Alice McDermott, What About the Baby? Some thoughts on the Art of Fiction, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2021.
New German translation of GERMAN AUTUMN from Guggolz Verlag with a preface by translator Paul Berf reviewed in Die Zeit.
First Spanish translation of GERMAN AUTUMN from Pepitas ed. available from agapea.
First Korean translation of GERMAN AUTUMN from with a preface by Lo Dagerman from mihaenghouse.
May 13 Booklaunch in St. Petersburg, Russia, of ISLAND OF THE DOOMED in translation by Natalia Press.
Italian translation of Stig’s first novel THE SNAKE published by Iperborea that Carries a wide range of Dagerman titels in beautiful renditions. Iperborea also created and produced a podcast on Stig Dagerman (5 episodes) that did particularly well with almost 2500 listeners. The voice is by Matteo Bordone, a very well known radio journalist. “Stig Dagerman’s readers”, says the Iperborea publisher,” are very warm and faithful in Italy and they were extremely happy for the translation of Dagerman’s first novel.”
Also in Italian, a graphic novel, uniquely illustrated book by Davide Reviati based on Stig’s mystical SHORT STORY “The Lord Whom I Rowed”, has been published by Else Edizioni and Coconino. Available in 600 silkscreen and 1500 printed copies.
On-Line Events: The Making of a Man – documentary by Lo Dagerman based on Stig Dagerman’s play MARTY’S SHADOW:
March 11, 3pm EST La Maison française, NYU, New York: Virtual screening + Live Q&A with filmmaker Lo Dagerman and French history professor Herrick Chapman about Stig Dagerman in Paris 1947.
March 1-11 Scandinavia House, New York: Virtual screening. (link forthcoming)
March 9, 7pm EST Scandinavia House, New York: “Masculinity and Culture”. Live-streamed discussion with filmmaker Lo Dagerman and Mark Greene, author of Remaking Manhood and The Little #MeToo Book for Men, moderated by Benjamin Mier-Cruz, assistant professor at UWisc at Madison and translator of Stig Dagerman’s third novel A MOTH TO A FLAME (Penguin UK 2019). (link forthcoming)
February 15, Noon EST American Scandinavian Association/DC: Introduction by filmmaker Lo Dagerman followed by virtual screening.
Chapman University, California (February 22): Professor Mark Axelrod-Sokolow, director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing, reads Stig Dagerman’s A MOTH TO A FLAME with students, and invites Lo Dagerman. (Lo’s 60-min recorded zoom lecture available per request)
La Maison de la poésie, Paris (January 29) : NOTRE BESOIN DE CONSOLATION EST IMPOSSIBLE À RASSASSIER live-streamed performance by Deleyaman and actress Fanny Ardant.
Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival features The Making of a Man documentary by Lo Dagerman about courage, cowardice and toxic masculinity based on Stig Dagerman’s play MARTY’S SHADOW. Sept 13 – Oct 11 in “Trendsetter Features” program. Film receives Audience Choice Award, and goes on to Lift-Off FF in Sydney, Melbourne and London.
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 the dialogue 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.”
Théâtre de Belleville, Paris: OÙ EST MON CHANDAIL ISLANDAIS? – A one-man show based on the short story by Stig Dagerman. Dramatization by Eram Soubhani, La nouvelle compagnie (Sep 6-29)
France, Le Théâtre du peuple: NOTRE BESOIN DE CONSOLATION EST IMPOSSIBLE À RASSASSIER – an electro-rock musical interpretation of Stig Dagerman’s essay by Simon Delétang & Fergessen (Aug 29-Sep 6)
New York: Stig Dagerman’s last novel WEDDING WORRIES – Presentation by Lo Dagerman, audiobook narrator. Scandinavia House March 24 joint event with Swedish writer Helena Thorfinn (postponed due to COVID)
Washington DC: Book launch of WEDDING WORRIES the audiobook narrated by Lo Dagerman. The Writers Center, January 19 joint event with Swedish writer Helena Thorfinn
A MOTH TO A FLAME reviewed in the UK: “Dagerman is excellent on how our motives can be a mystery even to ourselves.” “First published in the late 1940s, this searing tale of bereavement and loathing feels all too relevant today.” The Guardian
“A literary giant in Sweden, Dagerman conjures a Strindbergian atmosphere of shadowy menace in his brief, intense novel … well worth reading.” The Evening Standard
Living Writers. T Hetzel interviews Lo Dagerman and Nancy Pick about “The Writer and the Refugee” – their book about Stig Dagerman, Etta Federn and his play “Marty’s Shadow”.
Textile artist Britta Marakatt-Labba receives the 2019 STIG 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.
May 10, Washington DC: Screening of MARTY’S SHADOW by Whitney Aronson and Dan Levy Dagerman based on the 2017 New York stage production by the August Strindberg Repertory Theater directed by Aronson. Starring Jimi Stanton as the bullied Gabriel, Jackie Maruschak as his overbearing mother, Ivette Dumeng as the love object, and James McKinney as the manly competition and Marty look-alike. Lo Dagerman and Nancy Pick, authors of The Writer and Refugee will lead the discussion of MARTY’S SHADOW at this Alliance francais event.
May 4, Madison, Wisconsin: WEDDING WORRIES IN THE LIGHT OF AUGUST – Bengt Söderhäll from the Dagerman Seminar at the University of Gävle, and Lo Dagerman talk about William Faulkner’s influence on the writing of Stig Dagerman as part of the Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies.
WEDDING WORRIES long-listed for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award.
Notre besoin de consolation est impossible a rassassier/OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE – a dramatization of SD’s autobiographical essay using live music and video performed at le Quai in Angers, France, by Nicolas Berthoux, Compagnie Metis.
THE GAMES OF NIGHT – one of SD’s most well-known short stories – translated into Arabic by Farmaz Hussein published on-line.
Penguin UK publishes A MOTH TO A FLAME. Stig Dagerman’s third novel previously published as A BURNT CHILD – the Swedish title was based on a proverb that Stig objected to: “It is not true that a burnt child fears the fire. It is drawn to it like a moth to a flame. It knows that when it goes near it, it will burn itself again. Still, it gets too close.” In her preface to the 2018 edition, Siri Hustvedt writes “A startling novel of ferocious psychological acumen ….”
” … one thing that separates WEDDING WORRIES from the darkness of Dagerman’s earlier books (“earlier” meaning those written three or four years prior), and the thing that made it so important to me at the time, was that his characters figure out ways to get unstuck.” Johannes Lichtman (Such Good Work, Simon & Schuster 2019), full review in Tin House Winter Reading 2018, issue 78, read excerpt.
Paris Nov 12-14: Autour de Stig Dagerman: Les ombres de Stig Dagerman by Lo Dagerman and Nancy Pick about the creative process behind Dagerman’s play MARTY’S SHADOW.
“ WEDDING WORRIES is an incredible book […] [Nobel laureate] Le Clezio refers to his fascination with reading Dagerman slowly, comparing it to Ulysses and Light in August, all of which sounds like blurb-speak at first glance. But this is the most Faulknerian book that I’ve read in years /…/ I won’t tell you what happens in WEDDING WORRIES because I want you to have that experience. My students will in the spring because this is definitely a book I’ll be including in my world fiction class. There’s so much to like here, so much giggling and joy amid the pure run-down, dissolute, messed-up set of characters and desires. /…/ I urge you to stock it, buy it, read it, recommend it.”
— Chad Post, Three Percent Blog, University of Rochester, 2018
September 2018
Stig’s last novel, WEDDING WORRIES, for the first time in English, translated by Paul Norlén with Lo Dagerman, published by David Godine. The book includes a famous review by J.M.G. Le Clézio from Le Monde 1982. Cover: contemporary Swedish artist Karin Mamma Andersson. Events in Washington D.C. and at the Gothenburg Book Fair, Sweden.
Politics & Prose Washington D.C. September 16 at 1pm: Lo Dagerman presents Stig Dagerman’s last novel with Linda Zachrison, Cultural Counselor, Embassy of Sweden
Scandinavian Cultural Center Boston October 6 at 7pm
Living Writers radio program hosted and produced by T Hetzel, WCBN FM Ann Arbor 88.3, October 17
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE in new Portuguese edition published by Vasco Santos Editor.
Gothenburg Book Fair 2018 Sep 27 at 5pm: Theater director Mattias Andersson and Lo Dagerman in in conversation about the relevance of Stig Dagerman’s MARTY’S SHADOW in today’s political climate.
AMOS OZ receives the 2018 SD AWARD on May 26 in Älvkarleby, Sweden. The prize will be accepted by Oz’s longtime friend and former publisher Camilla Nagler. Read Amos Oz’s exceptional acceptance remarks.
Swedish playwright Mattias Andersson’s adaptation of Stig’s MARTY’S SHADOW titled Skuggorna av Mart well-received by Swedish press as it provokes a debate about what it’s like to live in the shadow of another person; what it’s like to be bullied and to strive to become your own person.
For the first time in English: Stig’s reflections on his own writing process in WEDDING WORRIES AND OTHER UPSETS
Composer Nuria Gimenez Comas presents NOTRE BESOIN DE CONSOLATION/OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION with actor Lambert Wilson reading Stig Dagerman’s text set to a modern orchestration performed by Geneva Camerata.
In remembrance of the victims of the 1938 Berlin November pogrom (the night of the broken glass), composer/singer Channa Riedel performed FLYKTEN VALDE OSS/FLIGHT SOUGHT US OUT at an event at the Stockholm Synagogue.
Stig Dagerman’s novel THE SNAKE is translated and published in Greece.
Dagerman’s play MARTY’S SHADOW in translation by Nancy Pick and Lo Dagerman published on Amazon
Dagerman’s short story SLEET published in a beautiful box set Four Swedish Classics (Novellix 2017) together with stories by August Strindberg, Selma Lagerlöf and Astrid Lindgren
“Dagerman! You were a lover of truth!” from Twenty Statements about Stig Dagerman- Poet and Anarchist by Adonis published in a new Swedish edition of Dagerman’s collected political verses and poems originally written for the Swedish Anarcho-Syndicalist daily Arbetaren (Norstedts, 2017)
Gothenburg Book Fair Sep 28-Oct 1: A selection of Dagerman’s political verses and poems will be distributed as part of an anti-nazi protest; his novel ISLAND OF THE DOOMED will be read aloud in its entirety; and the background of his play MARTY’s SHADOW presented.
Gothenburg Sep 30: Skuggorna vi bär An evening discussing the presence of resistance in Dagerman’s plays with a focus on MARTY’S SHADOW led by Stina Oscarson
New York March 11: North American premiere of MARTY’S SHADOW, Dagerman’s most performed and translated play, the August Strindberg Repertory Theatre . Through April 1.
New York March 21: MARTY’S SHADOW: HEROISM, WAR AND THE MONSTER MOTHER – Three Perspectives on Dagerman’s drama Scandinavia House 7pm . Panel with Lo Dagerman & Nancy Pick, authors of Skuggorna vi bär about the genesis of the play; Herrick Chapman, Professor of History and French Studies at NYU; and Eugene Mahon, psychiatrist at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research at Columbia University.
Now on youtube: From despair to a place of hope OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION/VART BEHOV AV TROST – short film with Stellan Skarsgard based on Stig’s famous essay Our Need for Consolation Is Insatiable … In English … and Swedish
New Book: A personal investigation into Stig’s play MARTY’S SHADOW/SKUGGAN AV MART by Lo Dagerman and Nancy Pick, relative of Etta Federn who inspired his shocking play, so far only in Swedish
France: Two Dagerman volumes republished by Maurice Nadeau. Les wagon rouges, a short story collection, and the novel Ennui de noce (WEDDING WORRIES). This issue includes Stig’s own account of how he came to write the novel, and a post-script by Lo Dagerman.
Stig Dagerman’s prose extract A THOUSAND YEARS WITH GOD performed as poetic circus by Kompani Giraff in Stockholm.
Italians are reading THE POLITICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE a widely reviewed collection of Stig Dagerman’s political articles ( La politica dell’impossibile, Iperborea, 2016). Read one article from the collection, in translation by Lo Dagerman, on The World Citizen movement for peace spearheaded by American Garry Davis.
Syrian-Lebanese poet Adonis receives the 2016 One Day A Year STIG DAGERMAN AWARD for his body of work, where passion for Arabic poetry, beyond the claims of religious and political currents, uncovers the liberating essence of the art form. Read more about the Stig Dagerman Award
Stig’s poem on the plight of refugees, FLIGHT SOUGHT US OUT, published by Innsbrucker Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse.
Do We Have Faith In Humanity? Stig’s classic and in Sweden oft-cited response to a magazine question posed in 1950
European Refugee Crisis and Political Polarization. “Maybe most relevant of all” this fall: Stig Dagerman’s poem FLIGHT SOUGHT US OUT – read, sung and referenced all over Sweden. Several Swedish versions on youtube of Flykten valde oss Folksinger Turid on Swedish TV
Inauguration speech by Swedish Academy Chair Per Wästberg of Manuskript – sculpture to celebrate Stig’s writing
NYRB July 9: Colm Tóibín on four recent American editions of Stig Dagerman’s writing: The Hard-Won Truth of the North
June 23, New York: Staged reading of Stig’s play MARTY’S SHADOW by the August Strindberg Rep Theater. First time for this play in the US – a NYRB event listing
New York lit mag LITTLE STAR Weekly publishes excerpt of Marty’s Shadow
Swedish writer/director Suzanne Osten receives the 20th STIG DAGERMAN AWARD for her groundbreaking work with children’s theater – elevating its status both in Sweden and abroad. May 31, Älvkarleby, Sweden – Stig’s birthplace. www.dagerman.se
Now on-Line: OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE in Steven Hartman’s literary translation. Read it here!
Dan Levy Dagerman’s short film OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION (2012), featuring Stellan Skarsgård, shown at the Northern California Psychiatric Society’s 55 Annual Meetings in Monterey, CA. As psychiatrists, we are aware of the difficulties and pain that depression causes its sufferers, but the words of Stig Dagerman evoked a depth of feeling more profound than most of us can convey. Stellan Skarsgård’s reading further heightened the dramatic tension and impact. People found it very moving. – NCPS President Zena Potash. See the film here!
Stockholm Dec 16: A Celebration of Stig Dagerman in Words and Music Royal Concert Series
Dec 6: Dagerman’s Resistance Provides Consolation. Let us always continue to read him. Swedish journalist Lisa Otterstrom reviews NATTENS LEKAR (THE GAMES OF NIGHT) (SD’s Collected Short Fiction) with introduction by Colm Toibin
Maryland Dec 4: A Swedish Perspective on Post-War Germany. Lecture on Stig Dagerman’s GERMAN AUTUMN at UMD at College Park
Remembering Stig: Chilean anniversary translation and edition Nuestra necesidad de consuleo es insaciable/OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE Mar y Tierra, Valparaiso Read Lo’s intro.
Honoring Stig: Swedish short doc about Lars Kleen’s scuplture Manuskript in the Stig Dagerman Park outside Stockholm
Stig Dagerman’s GERMAN AUTUMN – Presentation at UMass Amherst, MA.
“Dreams of My Father” – Talk by Lo Dagerman, Scandinavian Cultural Center, Boston, MA
Irish writer Colm Toibin : (Dagerman is) a master in the art of absence, a master of the nuances of that which is missing and cannot be expressed. Introduction to NATTENS LEKAR (THE GAMES OF NIGHT) – a new edition of Stig Dagerman’s short fiction in Swedish Norstedts.
… short fiction as a vehicle of moral agency and insight, with a capacity to generate human empathy, identification and understanding. Steven Hartman, translator of SLEET quoted on the cover of EL HOMBRE DESCONOCIDO – short fiction by Stig Dagerman in Spanish translation by Juan Capel and Marina Torres amazon
SLEET Selected Stories (Godine, 2013) long listed for Three Percent’s Best Translation Book Award Fiction 2014.
A perfect story – Award-winning writer Alice McDermott on title story SLEET youtube.
2014 Little Star 5 publishes Stig’s autobiographical essay OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE in Steven Hartman’s translation http://littlestarjournal.com/issues/
Review of SLEET (Godine 2013) – short stories by Stig Dagerman translated by Steven Hartman – reviewed on Three Percent website. I would happily read this collection a second and even a third time. – Sarah Gerard, writer
More SLEET news: Alice Munro, this year’s Nobel prize winner in literature, expresses praise for Stig Dagerman’s short fiction. Article in the Swedish newspaper Arbetarbladet covering the Nobel week festivities.
Stig’s classic story TO KILL A CHILD inspires another short film: L’Instant (15 min, in French) by Swedish filmmaker Nathalie Sparrfelt – shows in Stockholm, Sweden as part of a French Film Festival.
NY & DC: Three events about Stig Dagerman & his writing: with translator Steven Hartman, Siri Hustvedt and others in New York, and Alice McDermott and Mark Kurlansky in Washington. See EVENTS and youtube videos for details.
New film planned based on German Autumn and executive produced by Stellan Skarsgård. More information.
State University of New York at Albany will host “A Celebration of Swedish Author Stig Dagerman” with his daughter Lo Dagerman and translator Steven Hartman on 25 October. More information.
Check out the new Facebook pages for Dagerman.us and the short-story collection Sleet.
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION, the short film by Dan Levy Dagerman featuring Stellan Skarsgård, is now available through Amazon.com for download.
The STIG DAGERMAN AWARD 2013 to the Swedish youth network with the rallying cry Ingen Människa Är Illegal (No One Is Illegal), whose mission is to help illegal immigrants to Sweden stay in the country. Read more.
From University of Minnesota Press: Stig Dagerman’s third novel A BURNT CHILD in a brand new translation by Benjamin Mier-Cruz. Introduction by Swedish writer/playwright Per-Olov Enqvist. Read more.
The Swedish Consulate in San Fransico and the local chapter of SWEA (Organization of Swedish Women) sponsored a Dagerman event at the SWEA Library. Speakers were Steven Hartman and Benjamin Mier-Cruz, translators of Sleet and A Burnt Child respectively, and Lo Dagerman. Honorary Consul Barbro Osher introduced the event. The short film Our Need for Consolation was shown.
SWEA/Los Angeles sponsored a Dagerman event with speakers Steven Hartman, translator, and professor Mark Axelrod of Chapman University, who spoke about student response to reading German Autumn and The Games of Night. Lo Dagerman and Dan Levy Dagerman introduced the film Our Need for Consolation.
Dreams of My Father – Lo Dagerman spoke about her project to introduce Stig Dagerman’s writing in the U.S. at a luncheon organized by SACU (Swedish-American Cultural Union) in Washington, D.C.
The NY ShortsFest screened the documentary OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION based on Stig’s autobiographical text. Read more.
Stig Dagerman in English, a panel with translators Steven Hartman and Benjamin Mier-Cruz, and Lo Dagerman, at the annual conference of the Society for Advanced Scandinavian Studies in San Fransisco May 2-4, 2013. The short film Our Need for Consolation will also be shown.
Little Star, a journal of poetry and prose, features “Evening Promenades” from Dagerman’s novel A Burnt Child to be published this spring by University of Minnesota Press in a new translation by Benjamin Mier-Cruz.
Read This! Handpicked Favorites from America’s Indie Bookstores: “I recently read Stig Dagerman’s German Autumn … It is journalism at its finest, with lucid prose that forced me to think of that time period and the German people in more complex ways than I ever had before.” — Hans Weyandt, Co-Owner, Micawber’s Books, St. Paul, MN.
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION, the short film shows at the Rome International Film Festival in GA, USA.
Siri Hustvedt on Stig Dagerman: “… he is a writer of uncommon urgency and power.” From the chapter “Stig Dagerman”, Living, Thinking, Looking (Henry Holt and Company, NY, 2012).
GERMAN AUTUMN reviewed in The New Republic: “Dagerman describes all of it with a ferocious lucidity that does not admit hyperbole or sentimentality. He is concerned to tell the truth, to show the world as it is, because only then can a clear idea be formed of what ought to happen next…” —Aaron Thier
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION, the short documentary film based on Dagerman’s essay Our Need for Consolation Is Insatiable—will show at the Summer Film Series at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, CA on August 2.
Swedish Book Review 2012:1 publishes new satirical poems by Stig Dagerman in translation by Laurie Thompson.
The Egyptian activist, writer, and psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi, receives the STIG DAGERMAN AWARD 2012. Her life-long work for freedom, particularly as it pertains to women, has helped to deepen our understanding of its meaning, significance, and goals.
University of Minnesota Press Blog: Our Need for Consolation: Reading Stig Dagerman.
University of Minnesota Press issues first US edition of ISLAND OF THE DOOMED – Dagerman’s Kafkaesque novel written at the time of the Nuremberg Trials and the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Opening at the Gothenburg International Film Festival: Vårt behov av tröst/OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION, a short film based on Dagerman’s essay Vårt behov av tröst är omättligt/Our Need for Consolation Is Insatiable published two years before his death. Stellan Skarsgård is the on-screen narrator in this film by Dan Levy Dagerman which combines dramatization and documentary imagery to give insight into Dagerman’s fight for his life.
The following Dagerman poems in current Swedish music compositions: Birgitta Svit (BIRGITTA SUITE) (Daniel Östersjö – acustic composition using piano, guitar, base, drums, song); 8 maj 1945 (Hans Nilsson – choir, symphony orchestra), Jorden (Pelle Olofsson – choral piece); Jorden (Anders Edenroth/The Real Group – a capella, piano) theme in forthcoming Swedish feature film.
The first US edition of GERMAN AUTUMN – Dagerman’s collection of articles from Germany immediately after the fall of the Third Reich. Foreword by Mark Kurlansky. “Unlike any other reporting at the time.” More…
“Dagerman’s Star” at the Gothenburg Book Fair – The Swedish Dagerman Society gives a mini-seminar in words and music on the star theme in Dagerman’s writing.
The STIG DAGERMAN AWARD 2011 to Judit Benedek and SOS Romer – a project about attitude change. It shines a light on the prejudice of people of Romer background through the medium of theater. The project is a collaboration between Teater Kolibri in Hungary and Teater De Vill in Sweden.
UMP has scheduled the release of GERMAN AUTUMN for October 2011! Godine’s Dagerman short story collection set for November 2011! There will be new introductions by prominent US authors to both volumes – more to follow.
The University of Minnesota Press interested in reprinting a number of Dagerman texts in the USA and Canada, starting with GERMAN AUTUMN followed by ISLAND OF THE DOOMED and A BURNT CHILD in new translation.
Stig Dagerman’s poem Julbudskap (A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE) has been put to music by Urban Forsgren and Bengt Söderhäll. It’s available on a CD in both Swedish and English..
Siri Hustvedt joined a group of highly esteemed Swedish writers – Kerstin Ekman, P.O. Enquist, Lotta Lotass and Agneta Pleijel – for discussion of Dagerman’s writing in Stockholm on November 7. Actors Jonas Bergström, Anita Björk, Elin Klinga and Hannes Meidal read excerpts from A Burnt Child, The Island of the Doomed, The Snake and Thousand Years with God. See clip.
Afterwards, in a conversation with Dagerman’s daughter Lo, Hustvedt said that she would like to see all of Dagerman’s writing readily available in quality English translations.
Release of brand new Swedish editions of Ormen (The Snake) and De dömdas ö (The Island of the Doomed) by Norstedt’s Publishing. New introductions written by authors Siri Hustvedt and J.M.G. LeClezio respectively!
More Dagerman research: Rikard Apelgren, A Dream in the House of Law: The Moment, Man and the Transcendent. Studies in the Writings of Stig Dagerman’s. Stockholm University 2010. The focus of the dissertation is on religious themes underlying Dagerman’s description of the human condition.
Norstedt’s contract with Boston-based David Godine Publishing finalized for the publication of two new Dagerman volumes in English within Godine’s Verba Mundi series. The first will be a short story collection, and the latter, finally, an English translation of the novel Bröllopsbesvär/WEDDING WORRIES.
Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård reads excerpts from Our Need for Consolation on camera for a short film in development by Lo Dagerman and Dan Levy Dagerman.
Paris-based L’Harmattan publishes researcher Karin Dahl’s dissertation on how Stig Dagerman’s work has been received in France and Italy: La réception de l’œvre de Stig Dagerman en France – la consécration d’un écrivain étranger.
The Urugayan writer Eduardo Galeano is awarded the 2010 Stig Dagerman Prize because his writing is steadfast in its support for all those who are marginalized and condemned.
Deutscher Herbst ’46 (German Autumn ’46) – The film by Michael Gaumnitz now on (Vimeo).
Release of brand new Swedish editions of Tysk höst (German Autumn) and Bränt barn (A Burnt Child) by Norstedt’s Publishing. New introductions written by authors Elfriede Jelinek and P.O. Enquist respectively!
Top Ten Cultural News as reported by Swedish Television (SVT): “Stig Dagerman – A new spring for one of greatest figures in Swedish literature. Norstedts’ new Dagerman releases kick off with two opposite poles of Dagerman’s short but intense writing career: the journalistic German Autumn and the novel A Burnt Child. Less than two years separates them, still here Dagerman first surpasses all Swedish journalism that went before and maybe after, only to shortly thereafter in a few weeks write one of the most powerful books in Swedish prose about love and betrayal.”
“Another Dagerman” – article in Svenska Dagbladet (Stockholm daily) on the continued interest in Dagerman’s writing in Sweden and abroad. New Swedish editions of German Autumn and A Burnt Child just released!
American interest in translating and staging a Dagerman’s play: Streber (Company Man). One rationale: “With the culture of corporate and personal greed on full display in the US … , Streber strikes a chord with similar themes and behavior”.
Moment Theater in Stockholm creatively stages their adaptation of The Island of the Doomed based on Dagerman’s intense novel. “There is no text like it in Swedish literature” says Director Pontus Stenshall. Read review: “To Dialogue with Dagerman”.
A small exclusive American publisher is interested in publishing Dagerman in the USA.The proposal will include a short story collection, with new translations by Steven Hartman, and one novel . It will most likely be Wedding Worries – for the first time in English! More to follow…
A short film screenplay: Our Need for Consolation, based on Stig’s essay, has been submitted for funding in Sweden and the US. The film will be shot in Strckholm and New York by Dan Levy Dagerman, possibly as early as April/May 2010.
www.dagerman.us gets inquiries from different parts of the world: “Where can I find Dagerman translations in Spanish?” (Argentina); “I would like the rights to translate Stig Dagerman poems to Bengali.” (Bangla Desh/Sweden); “Where do we get the rights to stage a play based on a Dagerman text?” (Portugal).
German Autumn ’46 by Michael Gaumnitz is now available on DVD with English narration. The film is an incredible document of the German state of mind that cold and rainy fall. It is also available in French, German and Swedish. Contact amip@amip-multimedia.fr for info.
Dagerman’s novel De dömdas ö (ISLAND OF THE DOOMED) is available for free at Litteraturbanken in Swedish only.
The Swedish theater group Moment will have a world premiere of ISLAND OF THE DOOMED based on the novel on March 11 in Stockholm.
The Dagerman Society in Sweden has had a very busy fall, particularly at the Book Fair in Gothenburg. Their work includes readings, music performances, interviews with this year’s Dagerman Award Winner, Birgitta Walllin, and a talk titled Le Clezio in Dagerman’s Forest alluding to JMG Le Clezio’s Nobel lecture 2008. The Society is also active in renewed publication of Dagerman in Sweden.
Swedish paper Aftonbladet give rave reviews of the newly released CD Regn by Bengt Söderhäll and Urban Forsgren under the headline Dagerman surprises as humorist! (Mikael Strömberg, Aftonbladet Kultur, 12-16-09).
Film requests: From French choreographer who wants to use an excerpt from Our Need for Consolation in short dance film. From Swedish filmmaker to make a film based on short story The Man Who Could Not Cry.
Special editions of German Autumn and A Burnt Child in Swedish to be released by Norstedts in the spring of 2010. German Autumn features an introduction by Austrian writer and Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek – who was also the recipient of the Stig Dagerman Award in 2004. The internationally acclaimed Swedish writer and playwright P.O. Enquist, whose recent biography A Different Life is translated into many languages including English, has written the introduction to A Burnt Child.
To Kill A Child is compulsory reading in Swedish drivers’ education! STR – Sveriges Trafikskolors Riksförbund – has included the short story in its risk assessment training handbook that is used nationwide. Stig would be happy: he initially wrote the story to promote traffic safety in 1952!
The Swedish Academy awards a grant to help fund www.dagerman.us!!! Thank you!
Film Automne Allemand ’46 (80 min), based on German Autumn, by French documentary filmmaker Michaël Gaumnitz. Shown on French, German and Swedish TV. Read more…
Eichborn Verlag in Germany will publish a new German edition of Wedding Worries in their series of classic literature started by Hans Magnus Enzenberger.
Spanish publisher (we’ll let you know who later) acquires rights to publish and market Dagerman in Spanish and Portuguese.
Norstedts Agency, that holds the rights to Dagerman, at the giant Book Fair in Frankfurt talking to publishers from the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Latin America.
Swedish public radio highlights new CD Regn with music to poems by Dagerman. Listen on SR or on MySpace.
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION in French will be performed by Compagnie Coups d’Foudre early in 2010 in the former swimming-hall Monitor in Paris. It promises to be a particularly spectacular and thought-provoking performance. Our Need for Consolation is also going to be staged in Fribourg, Switzerland.
Têtes Raides’ reggae version of Notre besoin de consolation est impossible à rassassier now have had over 38,000 viewers on Youtube. See the live performance.
Now on Vimeo: The Games of Night, based on Dagerman’s short story, set in New York.
New French editions of L’Ile de condamnés (The Island of the Doomed) and selected essays/La dictature du chagrin from Agone!
Swedish artist Patrik Qvist exhibits oil paintings based on A THOUSAND YEARS WITH GOD in Stockholm.
Website in English www.Dagerman.us up and running!
New Norwegian translation of German Autumn gets great reviews: “Dagerman’s writing provides current insight, the reader is asked to stretch his/her thinking, to understand the world from another point of view…” (Bergens Tidende 6/15/09) “Dagerman’s Tysk Høst shows that also journalism tied to a specific time can have the qualities of a classic.” (Dagsavisen 6/16/09).
Melanie Deattre-Vogt’s beautiful illustrations to Dieu rend visite à Newton (1727) (A THOUSAND YEARS WITH GOD) released in France by Les Edition de Chemin fer.
J.M.G. Le Clézio, Nobel prize Laureate 2008, delivers his Nobel lecture titled In the Forest of Paradoxes based on a quote by Stig Dagerman from the essay THE WRITER AND HIS CONSCIENCE. Le Clézio mentions Dagerman influence in a New York Times article.
French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio receives the Annual Stig Dagerman Award! Motivation: “JMG Le Clezio fills the white paper of his books with the most beautiful combination of words, created from an awareness of the unfair and unnecessary living circumstances of those who are weak and excluded. We all can see ourselves, our time and place, our freedom and vulnerabilities in his literary testimony.”
The French group Têtes Raides has much success with their interpretation of Notre besoin de consolation est impossible à rassassier (OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION IS INSATIABLE) set to reggae.