Dalslands Litteraturförening, the Literary Association of Dalsland, is here for anyone who reads, writes, collects, buys, sells, publishes, lends or is interested in literature in general.
We want to support literature connected to Dalsland. One of our important missions is to make authors from Dalsland better known both locally and nationwide. Our activities consist primarily of literary events in the form of Bokdagar i Dalsland, as well as the selling of books, publishing the membership publication Korpgluggen and maintaining our website.
Events
We arrange one of the country’s oldest and biggest literature festivals, Bokdagar i Dalsland. Our year-round activities take place in the entire province of Dalsland and consist of literary evenings with author guests, the short story festival Nordiska Novelldagen, poetry festival Poesidagar i Dalsland, seminars, book clubs, a scholarship program for Nordic writers, open day events, and writer classes such as the project Nya Röster (“New Voices”) aimed at young Syrian women.
Bokdagar i Dalsland / Summerfestival
Since 2001, we have been organizing one of the country’s oldest and largest literature festivals, Bokdagar i Dalsland. It takes place on the last weekend in July and since 2021 is a full five days long, with events in Åmål, Bengtsfors and Mellerud.
Nordiska Novelldagarna
Our international short story festival – Sweden’s oldest and largest. Has been arranged at various locations in Dalsland since 2007. Arranged since 2019 every two years on the second Friday and Saturday in March at Sagabiografen in Åmål.
Poesidagar i Dalsland
Our international poetry festival. Organized since 2020 every other year on the second Friday and Saturday in March at Baldersnäs manor outside Dals Långed.
Författarkvällar
Our author’s evenings are some of Sweden’s most well-attended. The events with the top Nordic authors, professional technology and the opportunity to often eat well and have a drink in connection with the events attract visitors from all over Dalsland, Bohuslän, Västergötland, Värmland and Norway.
Bokcirklar
Book clubs have been arranged at our Literature House since 2018. The participants of the book clubs usually read the works of our visiting guest authors, and ask them questions and discuss the works with the authors over the course of the events.
Skrivgrupp
For many years, Dalslands Skrivarförening did not have a group in Åmål, but in 2021 we remedied that and started one. The writing group meets once a month in our Nordic Literature House, holds writing exercises and talks about everyone’s writing. The exercises are based on the participants’ own experiences and knowledge.
Nordiska Litteraturhuset
Our office is located in the Nordic Literature House (Nordiska Litteraturhuset) in the town of Åmål. It is here we host our meetings, writer classes, book clubs, open day events, and have a library for Nordic fiction and literature from Dalsland. We also have an antiquarian book shop in the same building. About twenty Nordic residence writers have worked here and several published books are written in the Nordic Literature House. Soon again we hope that we can be able to recieve applications from writers who need to work here. We have had a square and a street named after Ida Bäckmann, a local writer from Åmål. The block surrounding our literature house is becoming more and more associated with literature.
Literature prizes
Every year we award two literature prizes, the Dalslands Sparbanks Litteraturpris award, and the Dalslands Sparbanks Skrivarstipendium scholarship for young writers. We also have our new poetry price, Torkelsrudpriset.
Dalslands Sparbanks Litteraturpris
Dalsland Sparbank Literaturpris award is instituted to annually highlight an authorship or a literary work with a connection to Dalsland. The prize winner can, for example, be an author, translator, publisher, or illustrator.
Dalslands Sparbanks skrivarstipendium för unga
Dalslands Sparbanks Skrivarstipendium scholarship for young writers is established to annually encourage a young, writing person with connection to Dalsland to continue and develop their writing.
Torkelsrudpriset
The Dalsland Poetry Prize “Torkelsrudpriset” is awarded during the Poesidagar i Dalsland to a poet who meets the requirement of being born in Dalsland or elsewhere.
Projects
The New Voices Project
Since the beginning of the project Nya Röster (“New Voices”) it has been written down in our statutes that we are to contribute to society. The project consisted of writing classes giving young refugee women from Syria the opportunity to develop their narrative and Swedish language skills.
Bookshelf cabinets
Wherever you come across a bookshelf cabinet in Dalsland, you are more than welcome to borrow books, read on site, pass them on, or take them home. Our nearly thirty self-made bookshelf cabinets filled with used books have been spread all over Dalsland since 2018. They are very popular, well-used, and constantly growing. The project is run in collaboration with municipalities, associations, and businesses.