Joanna Rubin Dranger’s Swedish graphic memoir Ihågkom oss till liv [tr. ‘Remember Us To Life’] has received the 2023 Nordic Council Literature Prize, becoming the first graphic novel in the history of the prestigious award to receive the honour. The author received a Nordlys statuette and 300,000 Danish kroner (~$42,700) in an October 31 ceremony at the Norwegian Opera & Ballet in Oslo, Norway.
Remember Us To Life is a nonfiction graphic memoir told through a blend of text, illustration, comics and photography. It is an exploration of the Jewish author’s family history as she seeks to learn about those members of her family lost in the Holocaust, never spoken of and seemingly forgotten. It was simultaneously published in Sweden – as Ihågkom oss till liv – from Albert Bonniers Förlag, and in Norway – as Husk oss til livet – from Spartacus Forlag in March 2022. It is not currently available in English.
Begun in 1962, the Nordic Council Literature Prize has been awarded annually for literary works written in one of the languages from the five member states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) and their autonomous regions. Any submitted work for the Literature Prize can be a novel or a collection of poems, short stories, or essays.
According to the Nordic Council website,
“The Nordic Council’s prizes are considered to be amongst the most prestigious prizes in the Nordic Region and enjoy great international recognition.”
The jury that decides the winner is the Nordic Adjudication Committee, which comprises two representatives from each Nordic Council state – giving a core Committee of ten members with six deputies. Each juror is expected to be an expert on the literature of their own country and that of other Nordic states. This year’s main committee comprised: Stefan Kjerkegaard & Gro Frank Rasmussen (Denmark); Fredrik Hertzberg & Sanna Manninen (Finland); Silja Björk Huldudóttir & Kristján Jóhann Jónsson (Iceland); Rune Christiansen & Tone Selboe (Norway); and Karin Nykvist & Sara Abdollahi (Sweden).
Joanna Rubin Dranger’s win is the first time a graphic novel has received the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Last year the Norwegian graphic novel Ubesvart anrop [tr. ‘Unanswered Calls‘] by Nora Dåsnes, about the July 2011 terrorist attacks on Utøya island and the government quarter in Oslo, received the 2022 Nordic Council’s Children and Young People’s Literature Prize but Remember Us To Life is a first for graphic novels in a category catering to adults.
The Nordic Council said about the book:
“Just as Joanna Rubin Dranger entered adulthood, her beloved Aunt Susanne took her own life. In Ihågkom oss till liv, the genre-transcending work that has been awarded the 2023 Nordic Council Literature Prize, Joanna portrays in both text and image how, many years later, she began to discover what led to her aunt’s suicide. As a result of her investigations, she is able to penetrate and explain the silences and circumlocutions that she grew up with, where relatives were “missing” or not mentioned at all. Joanna’s research leads her to the persecution of Jews in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Russia up to and during the Second World War, as well as the anti-Semitism and associated fallout in the Scandinavian countries and the devastating consequences of their unwillingness to help. It also leads to the joy of meeting relatives who survived by escaping to the US and Israel.”
They added,
“This combined research and book project has resulted in a beautiful work, which calls itself a documentary novel on the cover but is so much more: graphic novel, historical story, writer’s diary of sorts, and autobiography, where the narrator’s personal life is interwoven with major political happenings. Photography, drawing, watercolour, and text are bound up together here in an almost devastatingly effective story which, in its unique form, continues in a tradition that includes classics such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis”
Joanna Rubin Dranger is a multi award-winning Swedish cartoonist, author of children’s and adult titles, and adjunct professor of illustration. She debuted in 1989 with children’s book Arg! Nittiotalets argaste bok [tr. ‘Argh! The Angriest Book of the Nineties‘] co-written with friend Anna Karin Cullberg, and it won the Liber award the same year. 1999 saw the publication of her first graphic novel Fröken Livrädd & Kärleken [tr. ‘Miss Terrified & Love’] which saw acclaim and in 2000 she received the Stora Svenska Illustratörspriset [tr. Great Swedish Illustrator Award]. Her 2001 graphic novel Fröken Märkvärdig & Karriären also saw acclaim and was translated into multiple languages, including Japanese and English. The English edition entitled Miss Remarkable & Her Career (Penguin Random House, 2003). In 2007 she became the first woman in Sweden to hold the post of professor of Illustration at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, and became an affiliate professor from 2017. She frequently lectures about the power of images and with Moa Matthis cofounded Bilders Makt, an online archive to teach the public about racist and stereotypical imagery. In 2022 she received the Adamson award from the Svenska Serieakademin (Swedish Series/Comics Academy) for her work.
Formed in 1952, the Nordic Council is a cooperative body representing the interests of the Nordic states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and autonomous areas Åland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. It annually awards five prizes to cultural works and social initiatives: Literature (since 1962), Music (since 1965), Film (since 2005), Children and Young People’s Literature (since 2013). An Environment Prize awarded since 1995 is aimed at raising awareness for sustainability across the Nordic members, it is bestowed annually to individuals or organisations and announced alongside the Nordic Council’s culture prizes. All winners receive a Nordlys statuette and DKK 300,000 (~$42,700).
