Nationality: American
Field of Art: Fiction Writer
Introduced by: Grethe Bonde Griffin
Award Presented by: Grethe Bonde Griffin
Website: www.karenengelmann.com
Love, requited!
My novel “The Stockholm Octavo” was in many ways a love letter to the capitol city of the country I called home for nearly ten years. The book sold in 2010 to publisher HarperCollins in the US, but I had a great many fears about the response from Scandinavia, especially Sweden, whose history I had used so freely. Writing a novel set in 18th century Stockholm seemed a brash errand for an American woman now living in New York and working in design. Receiving the A.S.S. Cultural Award Grant in 2011 made me feel that my love letter was answered. The Stockholm Octavo has since sold for translation to Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, and ten other languages besides. The grant allowed me to travel to Stockholm to do further research for a second novel.
Thank you, American Scandinavian Society, for making me feel so connected, still, to a very special part of the world and encouraging me to continue my work.
Recent Events:
- The Stockholm Octavo Reading, 24 February, 2013
Articles:
- New York Times Book Review: Eight Degrees of Separation (pdf)