Håkan Sandell (born 16 February 1962 in Västra Skrävlinge) is a Swedish poet.

Life and career

Håkan Sandell emerged in the 1980s as a member of ''Malmöligan'', a group of poets based in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, consisting of Sandell, Clemens Altgård, Per Linde, Kristian Lundberg,

Lukas Moodysson Karl Fredrik Lukas Moodysson (; born 17 January 1969) is a Swedish novelist, short story writer and film director. First coming to prominence as an ambitious poet in the 1980s, he had his big domestic and international breakthrough directing the ...

and Martti Soutkari. Although diverse in style and subjects, the members were inspired by punk rock, the Danish poet

Michael Strunge Michael Strunge Jensen (19 June 1958 – 9 March 1986) was a Danish poet. He is regarded as perhaps the most influential Danish postmodern poet, and his works are among the most studied poems in Denmark. As a member of the original circle of 1980s ...

and differed from the politicised poetry that had dominated Sweden in the 1970s. The group disbanded in 1993 after which Sandell moved to Denmark, Ireland and eventually Norway. In the 1990s, Sandell and Altgård wrote the pamphlet ''Om retrogardism'' ("on retrogardism"), in which they advocated a literature rooted in traditional expressions. Sandell has mentioned the painter

Odd Nerdrum Odd Nerdrum (born 8 April 1944) is a Norwegian figurative painter, born in Sweden, and considered to be one of the greatest living classical figurative painters. His work is held by museums worldwide. Themes and style in Nerdrum's work referenc ...

as an important influence for this direction away from

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. The first Nerdrum painting he saw was '' Return of the Sun'', through which he realised which qualities modernism was missing: "the pathetic, the heroic, the sentimental, the nostalgic, the decadent, the Luciferian, the declamatory, the dramatic, the Dantean! (Dantesque?), the Gothic, late

Manierism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sy ...

, etc." A volume of Sandell's poetry titled ''Dog Star Notations: Selected Poems 1999 - 2016'' appeared in English in 2016, translated by Bill Coyle and published by

Carcanet Press Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year. History ''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...

Selected bibliography

* 1981 – ''Cathy'', poetry * 1982 – ''Europé'', poetry * 1983 – ''En poets blod'', poetry * 1984 – ''Efter sjömännen ; Elektrisk måne'', poetry * 1986 – ''Johnny – en bokfilm'', prose * 1988 – ''Flickor'', poetry * 1990 – ''Skampåle'', poetry * 1991 – ''Dikter för analfabeter'', poetry * 1992 – ''Bestiarium'', privat print * 1994 – ''Fröer och undergång'', poetry * 1995 – ''Om retrogardism'', pamphlet (with Clemens Altgård) * 1995 – ''Mikkel Rävs skatt'' * 1996 – ''Sjungande huvud'', poetry * 1999 – ''Midnattsfresken'', poetry * 2002 – ''Traditionens uppvaknande'', essays * 2002 - ''Så som skymningen älskar dig'', translations from

Amanda Aizpuriete Amanda Aizpuriete (28 March 1956 – 22 October 2023) was a Latvian poet and translator. Biography Aizpuriete published seven collections of poems in Latvian language, Latvian. Her works have been translated into at least 14 languages. Eric Fu ...

* 2003 – ''Oslo-Passionen'', poetry * 2003 – ''Gåvor : valda dikter 1984-2002'', poetry * 2004 – ''Begynnelser : en barndom i tjugotvå dikter'', poetry * 2006 – ''Skisser till ett århundrade'', poetry * 2009 – ''Gyllene dagar'', poetry * 2012 – ''Jag erkänner att jag levde upp mitt liv'', translations * 2013 – ''Ode till demiurgen'', poetry

Accolades

* 2004 – Kallebergerstipendiet from the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...

* 2007 – Sveriges Essäfonds pris from Föreningen för Sveriges Kulturtidskrifter * 2010 – De Nios Vinterpris from

Samfundet De Nio Samfundet De Nio (''The Nine Society'' or ''Society of the Nine'') is a Swedish literary society founded on 14 February 1913 in Stockholm by a testamentary donation from writer Lotten von Kraemer. The society has nine members who are elected for ...

References

External links

Presentation
at the Swedish publisher's website
Presentation
at the British publisher's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandell, Hakan 1962 births 20th-century Swedish poets 21st-century Swedish poets Writers from Malmö Swedish male poets Swedish-language poets Living people 20th-century Swedish male writers 21st-century male writers