Biskops Arnö Författarskola

As an extension of my doctoral dissertation, I developed and now teach Att översätta (“To Translate”) a year-long course in the creative writing program at Biskops Arnö Författarskola, one of Sweden’s oldest and most established writing programs. This multilingual course in translation is the first of its kind in Sweden, and it places an emphasis on experimental and collective processes whereby participants in the course may deploy translation as a mode of disloyal and speculative investigation and creation. The course has run in 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2024-2025.

The course is primarily aimed at those who have a multilingual background and have grown up between or across languages, and who want to explore a translation practice within the framework of a creative writing program. Applicants do not need to be fluent in all their languages, but are expected to have an exploratory and critically engaged interest in translation in an expanded field, that is to say, an interest in the course as an opportunity to approach translation as an open and fruitfully impossible question.

“To Translate” aims to contribute to a deeper conversation about the conditions and practices of translation, and thus also to create a new space for translation within literary and artistic public spheres. We read and approach translation as a literary practice, artistic method, and ideological field of tension. Through both our own projects and class discussions, we center fundamental questions about the forms and purposes of translation. Our goal is to take an experimental and critical approach to conventions in the field and to view translation in relation to broader sociopolitical structures.

Key questions include the aesthetic, ideological, and ethical implications of translation; translation as condition for being; multilingualism and lost languages as plenty rather than less; and language as inheritance and archive of experience.

The course structure consists of readings and discussions that hover around theoretical as well as literary and artistic texts where translation is at the center; literary and artistic case studies in translation; and active engagement with our own projects, processed in continuous group discussions and individual meetings. The course readings consist primarily of materials in Swedish and English.

“To Translate” is based on the pedagogical foundations of the Swedish folkhögskola system, where participants' disparate life experiences and practices are held in the highest possible regard, and where the shared interests of the group are continuously explored with respect and curiosity. Reading and discussion of others' and our own ideas and work are at the heart of everybody’s teaching and learning. Our ambition is to stimulate both individual and group engagement through collective speculation and learning.

The course includes joint seminars, practical tasks, and discussions of readings and projects. During each semester, all participants are expected to work on an independent project with clear theoretical and methodological roots in course literature and class discussions.