Every place I've stayed in has left traces in my work. Places are extremely important to me as a writer. The history and the "genius loci" of a certain location, and the unpredictable encounters and experiences that each place enriches me with. After spending some time writing in cities like New York, Berlin, Athens and Paris, travelling around Argentina, Armenia, and the South and East of Europe, the turn has now come for me to stay in Rome for two months. To see what this city can give, creatively - and, hopefully, what I can give in return.

My novels are being translated into fifteen languages, which has given me the opportunity to take part in cultural events, seminars and echanges with translators, readers, fellow-wrtiers and universities in Europe and the USA. Coming from Sweden, a a small country in the periphery of Europe, being translated into world languages like English, Italian, Russian, is a writers dream. Although translating literacy fiction might be "mission impossible", I think it's invaluable in order to make literature available all over the globe, not bound by any boarders.

Currently I'm in an intense phase working on a big, challenging project that has been expanding during the past three years. As a novelist one never quite knows what a project will finally lead to, but hopefully I will conclude a vital part of it this winter in Rome, at Circolo Scandinavo.

Anne Swärd, currently living in Stockholm and Simrishamn. Author of three novels, "Polarsommar" (2003), "Kvicksand" (2006), and "Till sista andetaget" (2010). In 2011 "Fino all'ultimo respiro" was published by Mondadori, in translation by Anna Airoldi.

http://www.nordinagency.se/?id=1365&type=fiction

Artist-in-residence December 2012 - January 2013