Johanna Ulrika Ekström (9 May 1970 – 13 April 2022) was a Swedish author and artist. Ekström made her published debut in 1993 with a collection of poems called ''Skiffer'', and the following year she had her first exhibition at Galleri Charlotte Lund in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. Ekström published a dozen collections of poems and short stories as well as novels.

Biography

Ekström grew up in Stockholm, the daughter of the authors

Per Wästberg Per Erik Wästberg (born 20 November 1933) is a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997. Wästberg was born in Stockholm, son of Erik Wästberg and his wife Greta née Hirsch, and holds a degree in literature from Uppsala ...

and

Margareta Ekström Sigrid Margareta Ekström (23 April 1930 – 12 December 2021) was a Swedish poet, novelist, translator, children's writer, literary critic and film critic. Biography Ekström was born in Stockholm in 1930, to Harald Ekström and wife Sigrid ...

. She made her writing debut in 1993 with the collection of poems ''Skiffer ("Slate")'', and continued to publish poetry during the 1990s. After the turn of the millennium in 2000, she began writing short stories, novels, and diary entries. Her first collection of short stories, ''What Do I Know About Strength'', was published in 2000. Her first published

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

was ''Farewell Relay'' (2004), which was followed by the short story collection ''Look, she crawls''. Ekström became better known as a writer through his autobiographical works. The autobiographical ''If You Stay in the Sun'' (2012) describes growing up in a bourgeois and intellectual home on

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

. Her previous diaries were published in 2016 under the title ''Diary 1996–2002''. Her book ''The Sentences from 2000'' depicts the relationship with her mother, after her mother had difficulty speaking due to a stroke in the 1990s. As an artist, Johanna Ekström had her first exhibition at Galleri Charlotte Lund in 1994. Her work as a visual artist was closely linked to her poetry. In 2012, she had her first exhibition at Björkholmen Gallery and was subsequently represented by the gallery. She also exhibited at the Gothenburg Art Museum and Färgfabriken on Liljeholmen.

Personal life

For a time, she was cohabiting with author Tomas Lappalainen and had a daughter with him. Ekström died of cancer on 13 April 2022, at the age of 51. Following her death, a final book, drawing on her 13 handwritten notebooks was completed by Ekström's best friend, the editor and author

Sigrid Rausing Sigrid Maria Elisabet Rausing FRSL (born 29 January 1962) is a Swedish philanthropist, anthropologist and publisher. She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the United Kingdom's largest philanthropic foundations, and owner of ''G ...

; translated into English as ''And the Walls Became the World All Around'', it was described in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as "a brave and beautiful memoir of Ekström’s final two years, and a moving meditation on grief and friendship".

Bibliography

* ''Skiffer'' (1993) * ''Vitöga: dikter'' (1994) * ''Rachels hus: dikter'' (1995) * ''Fiktiva dagboken'' (1997) * ''Gå förlorad: dikter'' (1998) * ''Brott'', with Erik Pauser (1998) * ''Vad vet jag om hållfasthet'' (2000) * ''Jag ska vakna stående '' (2003) * ''Avskedsstafetten'' (2004) * ''Titta, hon kryper'' (2006) * ''Det enda främmande '' (2008) * ''Om man håller sig i solen'' (2012) * ''Dagbok 1996-2002'' (2016) * ''Meningarna'' (2020) * ''Och väggarna förvandlades till världen runtomkring'' (2023)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekström, Johanna 1970 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Swedish poets 20th-century Swedish women writers 21st-century Swedish poets 21st-century Swedish women writers Swedish women poets Deaths from cancer in Sweden