Johannes Anyuru (born 23 March 1979) is a Swedish poet and author.

Biography

Anyuru was born in

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them t ...

. His father is from

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

and his mother is Swedish. He debuted in 2003 with ''Det är bara gudarna som är nya'' (Only The Gods Are New), a poetry collection. In this collection of poems Anyuru used

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...

's epic

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

as a background and inspiration for the portrayal of

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

neighborhoods. A place that is often mentioned in his poetry is the area around ''Mörners road'' in

Växjö Växjö ( ) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 70,489 inhabitants (2019) out of a municipal population of 95,995 (2021). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of Kronoberg County ...

, where Anyuru lived as a child. Reviews of this book linked his style to both older contemporary Swedish poets as

Göran Sonnevi Göran Sonnevi (born 3 October 1939 in Lund, Skåne County) is a Swedish poet and translator. Sonnevi grew up in Halmstad; he studied literature and linguistics at the University of Lund, also getting librarian training. For many years he has ...

Tomas Tranströmer Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (; 15 April 1931 – 26 March 2015) was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems captured the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. Tranströmer's ...

, and hip hop band The Latin Kings. Anyurus second poetry collection, ''Omega'', is a much more downbeat since it deals with the loss of a close friend to cancer. Anyurus third collection, ''Städerna inuti Hall'' (The Cities Inside Hall) was published in 2009 and describes sad socio-political landscape. His fourth book ''Skulle jag dö under andra himlar'' (If I Were to Die Under Other Skies) is not a poetry book, but

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

. He has also worked with

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics o ...

as part of the group ''Broken Word'' and a touring performance with the

National Swedish Touring Theatre The National Swedish Touring Theatre ( sv, Riksteatern) is biggest touring theatre company in Sweden and can, in one way, almost be described as Sweden's national stage on tour. The National Swedish Touring Theatre is financed and owned by 2 ...

called Abstrakt rap. Both projects has been released as CD's. In December 2009 he debuted with his first play ''Förvaret'' (The Detention Centre), at Gothenburg City Theatre, co-written with Aleksander Motturi. During the summer of 2010, he was one of several hosts of legendary radio program Sommar.

Bibliography

*''Det är bara gudarna som är nya'' (poetry collection, 2003) *''Omega'' (poetry collection, 2005) *''Städerna inuti Hall'' (poetry collection, 2009) *''Skulle jag dö under andra himlar'' (novel, 2010) *''En storm kom från paradiset'' (novel, 2012) *''A Storm Blew in From Paradise'' (novel, 2015; translated into English by Rachel Willson-Broyles, 2019) *''De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar'' (novel, 2017) *''

They Will Drown in their Mothers' Tears ''They Will Drown in their Mothers' Tears'' ( sv, De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar) is a 2017 novel by Swedish author Johannes Anyuru. It won the 2017 August Prize for Fiction. An English translation by Saskia Vogel Saskia Maria De ...

'' (novel, 2017; translated into English by

Saskia Vogel Saskia Maria Desiree Vogel (born September 17, 1981) is an American author and translator. ''Permission'', her debut novel, was published in English, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish in 2019 and has been optioned for television. She has translated ...

, 2019)

Honours

* ''

Nöjesguiden ''Nöjesguiden'' (Swedish for "the entertainment guide") is a Nordic free-of-charge young adult monthly magazine, available in the major cities in Sweden, which was established in 1982. It is also published with similar format In Finland under t ...

Magazine'' award for best read 2003 * ''Guldprinsen'' prize 2003 * ''Kallebergers scholarship'' 2005 * ''Spingo-scholarship'' 2005 * ''

Augustpriset The August Prize ( sv, Augustpriset) is an annual Swedish literary prize awarded each year since 1989 by the Swedish Publishers' Association. The prize is awarded to the best Swedish book of the year, in three categories. Prize In the years 1989- ...

nominee'' 2012, ''winner'' 2017

References

External links

* http://www.dn.se/dnbok/nominerad-till-dns-kulturpris-2010-johannes-anyuru-1.1027590 {{DEFAULTSORT:Anyuru, Johannes 1979 births Swedish people of Ugandan descent Swedish-language writers Swedish-language poets Sommar (radio program) hosts Living people