It gives me great pleasure to introduce another semi-finalists for the Cleopatra Writing Contest for Young Women. Anna’s interview made me grin because she’s clearly a young lady who believes in true sisterhood. Over the course of the next few months I’ll be featuring these young authors and I hope you’ll make them feel welcome and help encourage their craft.

Born in southeastern Sweden as the oldest of three children, Anna Nygren wrote her first story at the age of six. But it was not until she was seventeen that she actually realized that writing was an important part of her life and a way for her to express herself.

Anna has played the flute since she was nine years old, and is also active in a local amateur theatre. After graduating from high school in 2009 she studied German, French and literature at Linköping University for a year. Now she’s studying dramatic writing at Biskops-Arnö.

She loves drawing comics, sewing bags out of recycled coffee bags, dancing and singing. Anna has been nominated twice for the “Lilla Augustpriset” – a young people’s short story award in Sweden in memory of August Strindberg. Her works have been printed in several Swedish magazines (and one German) and her plays have been staged in a few theaters in Stockholm, Linkoping and Norrkoping.

Your poem, Sister Unseen, was described by the judges as lovely and lyrical. Can you tell us about it and what motivated you to write it?

When I started to write plays I did get in contact with several young, female, Swedish playwrights who were so extremely intelligent, interesting and open minded, writing about women in a way I had never read about before. Almost in the same time I started reading some feminist writers, for example Hélène Cixous. This inspired me to write about women and the relationship them between, and between women and the rest of the world. To write a poem was an easy choice, partly because English is not my first language and I find it hard to write for example credible dialog or environment descriptions.

I was particularly impressed with the theme of a sort of global sisterhood. What personal experiences did you draw upon to write about that?

I have thought much about relations between women. How it sometimes feels like a woman I met an hour ago is my sister, and sometimes the other way round – that one of my best friends turns into a foe. Sometimes I get frustrated over how female friendship is described in books; some authors seem to think that women can only be rivals. What I write in my poem is sort of a mix between real experience and what I dream of. I try to describe something that is not so simple; I try to write about something that I think is difficult and that I do not really understand something that is in the same time frustrating, sad and a little hopeful.  

What’s your favorite subject in school?

This is a really difficult question for me since I loved most subjects. But Swedish, English and German are probably my favorites. I love language, to learn a new one is to learn to see the world from a different angle.

Tell us about your home town.

I live in Norrkoping, a pretty small town in southeastern Sweden. It has a history of being an old industrial city, well known for its textile industry. Today most of the industry has turned into tourist attractions, but the old buildings are mostly left as they were a hundred years ago which makes the city very beautiful. Growing up on the countryside outside Norrkoping I always thought it was a very big city and when attending schools in town I never really understood my friends complaining about how little there was to do there – compared to my little village it was wonderful. Today I have realized that Norrkoping is not the centre of earth, but I think it is a wonderful city, it is where I have my friends and it has an open and welcoming atmosphere.

What kind of author do you want to be?

To be honest, I don’t really know. I want to write, and that is what I intend to do. I write in all kinds of genres, novels, short stories, poems (I am also a slam poet), children’s books, comics, fantasy and realism, but for the moment, what I really want to write is plays. Seeing the words you have written on stage is such an amazing experience. It gives a whole new dimension to your work and ideas. I also feel much freer writing for the stage, it is like the characters talked by themselves. But irrespective of what kind of work I am writing, I try to find characters and stories that describe the world in a way that the reader is not used to. A friend of mine once described my writing as “a sort of endless stream of conscience that stretches the limits and goes on until you say something that you are really not supposed to say”. I don’t know if it is a very good description, but I want to write something like that, I want to write things that are a little forbidden and inconvenient, things that open people’s eyes and make them realize that the world is not always black and white.

Is there a woman in your life who has helped guide you towards a better future? Is there anything you’d like to say to her or about her?

Except from my mum, I want to mention my English teacher, a Canadian woman named Valarie Ward. She introduced me to poetry; she encouraged me to write and told me that I could do whatever I wanted to. There are so many things that could be said about her, but saying she is super cool will do for now. And to her, I just want to say, Thanks!

What one thing do you know now that you wish you’d known before?

I’m not sure there’s anything I want to tell my younger me. For the moment I’m very satisfied with the way things are in my life and I guess that if I was to change something, I wouldn’t be the same person today.

And now, for our lightning round.

Your favorite band?

Oh, there are so many, but Queen always makes me happy, and there’s a German band called Wir sind Helden which sometimes really make my day.

Your favorite writer (other than me, of course)?

For the moment I’m sort of in love with Virginia Woolf.

Your favorite kind of pet?

Cats. I’ve got two myself and having one of them around, there is no need for anything else.

Your least favorite sound?

I spend much time traveling by train, and hearing the voice in the speakers saying there’s a delay is not so very nice.

Does anyone else have a question or two for Anna?