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Karin Tidbeck

Karin Tidbeck Photo: Charlotte Frantzdatter Johansen

Karin Tidbeck
Photo: Charlotte Frantzdatter Johansen

Karin Tidbeck (b. 1977) is a Swedish writer. Her first published short story was “Vem är Arvid Pekon?” (“Who is Arvid Pekon?”) in a 2002 issue the Swedish science fiction magazine Jules Verne-Magasinet. She published just a couple of stories in the following years, spread out in different Swedish magazines, until her short story collection Vem är Arvid Pekon? was published by a small press, Man av skugga förlag, in 2010.

Her international breakthrough came with her English short story collection, Jagannath, published by Cheeky Frawg in 2012. Lauded by writers such as China Miéville and Ursula Le Guin, it was awarded the Crawford Award, shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award and gave Tidbeck a name as one of the best and most interesting new voices within the field of speculative fiction. Her first novel, Amatka, was published in Swedish in 2012, a dystopian story about a world where language has power to change reality itself and where the constant naming of things is the only thing that keeps civilization together. The novel started out as dream entires and went by way of poetry collection and short prose pieces before it ended up in the form it was published. Her fiction is weird, sometimes absurd, sometimes uncomfortable, always worth reading.

Tidbeck writes fiction both in English and her native Swedish, and translate the stories both ways. She lives in Malmö, in the southernmost part of Sweden. She used to work at Science fiction-bokhandeln (“the science fiction bookstore”) in Stockholm and has a background in the Swedish LARP movement. She also works a creative writing teacher and writing coach.

Works in English

Short stories

  • An Essay on Rapture, published in the anthology Playing Reality (Interacting arts, 2010) edited by Elge Larsson
  • Augusta Prima, published in Weird Tales #357, 2011, and Lightspeed, September 2013
  • Jagannath, published in Weird Tales #358, 2011, also published in the anthology Aliens: Recent Encounters (Prime Books, 2013) edited by Alex McFarlane. Audio version published at The Drabblecast.
  • Aunts, published in the anthology ODD? Volume One (Cheeky Frawg Books, 2011) edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
  • Cloudberry Jam, published in Unstuck #1, 2011
  • The Devotees of Froof and Furble, published in Shared Worlds Critter Corral, 2012
  • Beatrice, republished in the anthology Steampunk Revolution (Tachyon Publications, 2012) edited by Ann VanderMeer. Originally published in the collection Jagannath.
  • Brita’s Holiday Village, published on Weird Fiction Review, 2012. Originally published in the collection Jagannath.
  • Reindeer Mountain, republished in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Seven (Nightshade Books, 2013) edited by Jonathan Strahan. Originally published in the collection Jagannath.
  • I Have Placed My Sickness Upon You, published in Strange Horizons, 2013
  • A Fine Show on the Abyssal Plain, published in Lightspeed Magazine #35, also published in the anthology The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2014 Edition (Prime Books, 2014) edited by Rich Horton
  • Sing, published in Tor.com, 2013, also published in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, volume 8 (Solaris, 2014) edited by Jonathan Strahan
  • Moonstruck, published in Shadows & Tall Trees #5, also published in the anthology The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2014 (Prime Books, 2014) edited by Paula Guran
  • Cultes des Goules, published in the anthology The Starry Wisdom Library (PS Publishing, 2014) edited by Nate Pedersen

Collection

  • Jagannath (Cheeky Frawg Books, 2012). Crawford Award 2013