Sven Nurdkvist

Sven Nordqvist is a Swedish writer and artist.

He was born on April 30, 1946, in the city of Helsingborg. Nordqvist’s childhood and youth were spent in Halmstad. As the writer later recalled, from the age of fifteen he dreamed of a career as an artist, but at first fate was not very favorable to him: after finishing school, Sven tried several times to enter various art schools, but each time he failed the entrance exams. As a result, he began studying architecture at the Higher Technical School in the small historic university town of Lund. Later, Sven lectured on architecture at the local university, worked for an advertising company in Halmstad, and designed textbooks, but his long-standing dream of becoming a professional artist still held him, and in 1983 he took part in a children’s illustration competition held by the Opal publishing house.

For the competition he submitted illustrations to a fairy tale he had written himself, Agaton Eman and the Alphabet, and won first prize. Thus his dream came true, and Agaton Eman and the Alphabet was published as a separate book the following year. Soon his second book, The Birthday Cake, appeared, with which Nordqvist began his series of fairy tales about old man Pettson and the kitten Findus, which fairly quickly became widely popular in his native country. Over time this popularity crossed Sweden’s borders: Nordqvist’s books, translated into various languages, became known in many European countries, first and foremost in Germany. Animated films have been made based on his books, and a computer game has also been created. In addition to the books about Pettson and Findus, Nordqvist is also known as an illustrator and coauthor of a series of fairy tales about the adventures of Mamma Moo and her friend Crow by the Swedish writers Jujja and Tomas Wieslander. In 2003, Nordqvist was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.