Liv Strömquist (born February 3, 1978) is a Swedish

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literar ...

and

radio presenter A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

Life and career

Strömquist was born in

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

and grew up in Ravlunda in the

Österlen Österlen ()) is a region in the southeast of the Swedish province of Scania (Skåne). Historically, the region was shared between the counties of Kristianstad County, Kristianstad and Malmöhus County, Malmöhus for a small part in the southwest ...

region of south Sweden. Today she lives in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

. Already as a five-year old she made her own comics, but stopped, until she took up drawing comics at the age of 23. Her flatmate made her interested in comic

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

s then. With ''Rikedomen'', she published her first own fanzine. Her breakthrough as a comic artist followed with her first album ''Hundra procent fett'' ("One hundred percent fat"), which was published in 2005. She regularly publishes in the comic magazine ''

Galago Galagos , also known as bush babies or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...

'' in various magazines and newspapers such as ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'', ''Dagens Arbete'', '' Bang'', ''

Aftonbladet (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lar ...

'' and ''Ordfront Magasin''. She designed the cover for the 2013 album '' Shaking the Habitual'' by the band

The Knife The Knife were a Swedish electronic music duo from Gothenburg, formed in 1999. The group consisted of siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They gained a large international following i ...

. She also made a comic strip for the band's website, which depicted income inequality in a satirical manner.

International success

Most of her books have been translated into French and German. ''Fruit of Knowledge'', (''Kunskapens frukt'') about the taboo of

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and Mucous membrane, mucosal tissue from the endometrium, inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized ...

and the

vulva In mammals, the vulva (: vulvas or vulvae) comprises mostly external, visible structures of the female sex organ, genitalia leading into the interior of the female reproductive tract. For humans, it includes the mons pubis, labia majora, lab ...

in society has also been translated into Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Galician, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovene, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian. Strömquist studied

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

and earned a degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

Malmö University Malmö University () is a public university located in Malmö, Sweden. With more than 24,000 students and about 1,600 employees (academic and administrative), Malmö University is the ninth largest institute of learning in Sweden. It has exchan ...

. In 2016 Strömquist was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

by Malmö University. Her comics are mostly about sociopolitical issues from a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

perspective. They are satirical essay about power and injustices. Since 2005, she has been working for the youth radio station

Sveriges Radio P3 Sveriges Radio P3 (P3) is a Contemporary hit radio, semi-mainstream CHR/CHR Alternative-formatted station operated by Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcasting organization Sveriges Radio. The P in P3 originally stood for Program (''Pro ...

. She was involved in the satirical programs '' Tankesmedjan'' and '' Pang Prego''. Together with the author Caroline Ringskog Ferrada-Noli, she runs the podcast ''En varg söker sin pod'' for the newspaper ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

''. In the SVT program ''Liv och Horace i Europa'', which was broadcast in spring 2016, she travelled through Europe together with

Horace Engdahl Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl (born 30 December 1948) is a Swedish literary historian and critic, and has been a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997. He was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy from 1999 to June 2009, when he was succ ...

and discussed the lives of various authors.

Awards

* Adamson Award 2012 * EWK Award 2013 *Kolla! 2020

Works

* ''Hundra procent fett''. Ordfront/Galago 2005. * ''Drift''. Kolik förlag 2007 (together with Jan Bielecki). * ''Einsteins fru''. Ordfront/Galago 2008. * ''Prins Charles Känsla''. Ordfront/Galago 2010. * ''Ja till Liv!''. Ordfront/Galago 2011. * ''Månadens moderat Kalender 2013''. Ordfront Förlag 2013. * ''Kunskapens frukt''. Ordfront/Galago 2014. (Eng. trans. ''

Fruit of Knowledge In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagat ...

'', Fantagraphics Books 2018.) * ''Kära Liv och Caroline''. Natur & Kultur 2015 (together with Caroline Ringskog Ferrada-Noli). * ''Uppgång & Fall''. Ordfront/Galago 2016. * ''Den rödaste rosen slår ut''. Ordfront/Galago 2019. (Eng. trans. ''The reddest rose'', Fantagraphics Books 2022.) * ''Inne i spegelsalen''. Norstedts 2021. * ''Liv Strömquists astrologi''. Norstedts 2022. * ''Pythian pratar''. Norstedts 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stromquist, Liv Swedish comics artists Swedish feminists Swedish radio presenters Swedish female comics artists Swedish women radio presenters Swedish album-cover and concert-poster artists 1978 births People from Lund Living people