The guest author at the conference will be the Swedish writer Åsa Lind

About Åsa Lind

When Åsa Lind was growing up in a little village in the north of Sweden, her mother once told her, “you can think about whatever you want, and nobody can take your thoughts away from you.” The kitchen at home was the centre of the world, and, surrounded by songs fairy tales and stories – about her father (who was a rock-blaster), about Ulysses and Njal, about the struggle for justice in the world and about when ‘Beauty came into the village’ – perhaps that is where she became an author, long before she had even learnt to write.

Åsa Lind sees her writing as a way of examining reality, trying to understand a part of it, but also a way of examining language itself. What is it possible to express in words? How do you ‘write’ a colour? How do you ‘tell of’ a scent? How can ‘space’ find room in a book? She says that she wants to write books that can be used. Non-fiction books that don’t lie, tales that you can read (or listen to) time and time again. For the past few years Åsa has lived in the archipelago between Sweden and Finland – the Åland islands – and she writes full-time. Recently, alongside Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Rose amongst others, she was in London for the “Small Feet Go Far” Swedish cultural season for children. Many of her works have been translated, and her publications for young children include:

Troll-Tula & Nisse/Troll-Tula and Nisse 1995
Din egen flora/Your own Flora 1998
Klippa, sten och sand/Rock, Stone and Sand 2001
Sandvargen/The Sand Wolf 2002
Änglar finns!/There are Angels! 2002
Mera Sandvargen/More of the Sand Wolf 2003
Prinsessbok/The Book of Princesses 2004
Sandvargen och hela härligheten/The Sand Wolf and the Whole Show 2004
Abrakadabra/Tricks and Magic 2005
Stora boken om Sandvargen/The Sand Wolf Trilogy 2006

Åsa Lind's appearance at the conference has been sponsored by the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul