Sara Stridsberg is a novelist, playwright and translator. Originally from Stockholm in Sweden, Sara is one of Scandinavia’s most celebrated female Swedish authors. Drawing her inspiration from Marguerite Duras, Sarah Kane, Elfriede Jelinek and Unica Zürn, she explores the themes of destruction and alienation in literature. The Faculty of Dreams, her second novel, awarded the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, is a biofiction about Valerie Solanas, published in a French translation in 2009. A stage adaptation in French was released by L’Arche Éditeur in 2010 under the title Valerie Jean Solanas va devenir Présidente de l’Amérique. Christophe Rauck directed a stage adaptation of The Faculty of Dreams at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in 2022. Sara Stridsberg’s second play, Medealand (2011), inspired by Euripides’ Medea, premiered at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 2009. Jacques Osinski directed the play at the MC2 : Grenoble in 2014. Darling River, her second novel, published in 2010, is a variation centred on the symbolic character of Lolita. In 2012, her play Dissection of a Snowfall premiered at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Her third novel, Beckomberga : Ode till min familj, was published in French by Gallimard under the title Ode à ma famille in 2016. The same year, Sara Stridsberg was appointed a member of the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Committee for Literature. She published her most recent novel, Kärlekens Antarktis, in French under the title L’Antarctique de l’amour with Gallimard in 2021. Sara Stridsberg has also written books for children : Dyksommar, which was translated into French and published under the title Plongée d’été by Gallimard-Jeunesse in 2021, and On va au Parc, an album co-written with the illustrator Béatrice Alemagna (Éditions La Partie, 2022).

Beatrice Alemagna was born in Bologna, Italy, in 1973. After studying graphic design at I.S.I.A., she won first prize in the “Figures futures” illustration competition at the Montreuil Book Fair in Paris in 1996. She was also awarded the Attention Talent-Fnac Prize in 2000 and the Octogones Prize by CIELJ in 2002. For the past decade, she has illustrated the posters for the children’s cinema festival, L’Ecran des enfants, at Beaubourg in Paris. She has published over thirty picture books as author and illustrator with publishers like Seuil, Hélium, Autrement jeunesse, Gallimard jeunesse, Didier jeunesse, Rue du Monde and Thierry Magnier. She has also illustrated some twenty picture books based on texts by other authors. Her work has been widely recognised, earning her numerous awards, including the Grand Prix de l’Illustration de Moulins for Un grand jour de rien, published by Albin Michel Jeunesse/Trapèze. Her illustrated book Mon amour has also been translated into over a dozen languages. Même pas en rêve is her first title published by L’école des loisirs.