The nominees for the Swedish 2021 Storytel Awards have been announced. The Storytel Awards have been bestowed since 2007 in Sweden to highlight the best audio books of the year. The awards are granted within six categories: Suspense, Fiction, Non-fiction, Feelgood, YA, and Children’s books.

Among the nominees for suspense are Kristina Ohlsson’s Icebreaker, Hjorth & Rosenfeldt’s As You Sow, Jens Lapidus’ The No-Go Zone, Anders de la Motte & Måns Nilsson’s A House to Die For, Liza Marklund’s The Polar Circle, and Anders Roslund’s Trust Me.

The nominees within the fiction category includes Fredrik Backman’s The Winners and Jonas Gardell’s A Happier Year, and Simona Ahrnstedt’s The Queen of the Night is featured on the Feelgood list.

Meanwhile, Anders Hansen’s Brain Blues and Måns Mosesson’s Tim – The Official Biography of Avicii features on the Non-fiction list, and David Sundin’s audiobook The Audiobook That Did Not Want To End – Part 2, from the same universe as The Book That Did Not Want To Be Read, is in the running for the Children’s books’ award.

Readers will be able to vote for their favorite works until February 9, after which a jury will pick a winner among the three candidates with the most votes in each category.

To cast your vote, click “Read more” below.

Filmmaker Ylva Forner has got extensive experience as screenwriter, director, producer and actor.

Her anticipated feature film debut, the erotic queer melodrama The Schoolmaster Games, is set to premiere in April 2022. It has already generated a great buzz and was described as ”stylistically perfect” by Gothenburg Film Festival.

“My strength lies in that I can offer a unique tone to very different kinds of projects. I love big feelings and big drama. I want to invite the audience to worlds they hopefully leave thinking new thoughts and feeling more feelings” says Forner.

Forner’s career started in Barcelona, Spain where she studied directing at Centre d’Estudis Cinematogràfics de Catalunya, and acting at La Casona – Formación del Actor. Following her studies she wrote and directed her first short films Polvo (2001), which premiered at the Rooftop Film Festival in NYC, and Deshielo (2004).

Forner’s acting career also started to take off, but she came to realize that she was more drawn to filmmaking and continued her film studies at Manuspiloterna Runö Folkhögskola and attended a specialized advanced course in show running for TV series at the renowned Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. She also received the prestigious scholarship SWEA Los Angeles Scholarship, which led to her spending some time in the US, giving her the opportunity to deepen her knowledge of the film and TV industry in Los Angeles.

2008 saw the release of her first Swedish short film Greetings från Slussen, Sthlm, and the following years she continued making shorts that explored human encounters, among else Gaming (2013) which was selected for the Palm Springs Shortfest.

Forner is currently developing several of her own film and TV projects, as well as working on a project with B-Reel (more details to be released soon), while always on the lookout for new exciting assignments as a director.

Showrunner, writer and director Henrik Björn has a long-standing career in the film and TV industry, creating groundbreaking, quality storytelling. He is dedicated to and has a passion for genre and exciting world building – and for telling gripping stories that can travel the globe.

Already in his early twenties Björn co-founded the successful production company Palladium, then foremostly working with commercials. As a commercial director he soon moved up in the industry and has today made more than 500 commercials with TV-clients such as Sony Ericsson, Premier League, Peugeot, Viasat, TV4, Amnesty International and the UN. Björn has also received multiple awards for his work, among else Gold in Promax for Premier League/Off to Sweden/Viaplay and Gold in 100W for SEB – The Bank at Home. Furthermore he has been nominated five times as one of the top ten commercial directors in Sweden in the business magazine Resumé’s Film of the Month.

Whilst working as a commercial director he felt increasingly drawn to creating stories for bigger formats, and an idea for a TV series started to grow. The following years this idea evolved into the incredibly successful crime fantasy drama Jordskott (2015-2017) for which he was creator, showrunner, head writer and conceptual director. Jordskott was a mega hit among viewers and critics alike, and has been sold to over 160 countries to date. It was awarded with a Swedish Emmy – a Kristallen award – for ‘Best TV Drama’ and the Banff Rockie Award for ‘Best Serial Drama’.

2021 saw the premiere of his audio drama Djupet/The Deep, starring Alba August and Stina Ekblad. The series, which he wrote and directed, was a huge success for commissioner SR. It was nominated at the Swedish Radio Academy’s Golden Ear Awards in the prestigious ‘Best Pod Production’ category as the only drama production.

Currently, Björn is working on several projects for TV, soon to be announced.

Katrine Engberg’s entire Copenhagen series dominates the official Norwegian bestseller list for paperbacks this week. The Tenant comes in at No. 2, Blood Moon at No. 3, The Butterfly House at No. 4, Isola at No. 6 and The Harbor at No. 12.

With tremendous sadness we announce the passing of our beloved author and mentor Björn Natthiko Lindeblad. Through his moving book I May Be Wrong, his work as a public speaker and meditational teacher, he has inspired people all over the world to live a more free and present life. His candid and heartfelt reflections on his ALS diagnosis and on death have been a source of comfort for so many. We will miss him dearly and forever cherish his insights, wit and warmth. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.