Swedish Authors

29 01 2025

The first Fika meeting in 2025 took place Saturday January 25 at Martin Luther Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. About 40 people enjoyed Cookie Anderson presentation of Swedish Authors. She reviewed 14 different writers from the 18th century to the present.

Emanuel Swedenborg born in 1688, Camilla Läckberg born 1974

As she announced before the meeting – “Swedes are incredibly gifted writers. To name a few: Astrid Lindgren was Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for several children’s book series, including Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, and Karlson-on-the-roof.  Henning Mankell, was a Swedish crime writer best known for a series of mystery novels starring Inspector Kurt Wallander. Steig Larsson, writer of the second-best-selling fiction author in the world for 2008 of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the bestselling book in the United States in 2010 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

Fredrik Backman’s novel A Man Called Ove was adopted in the movie A Man Called Otto in 2022 starring Tom Hanks.

Please find Cookie’s presentation of all authors here. Presentation Link.

Presentation Link

What did you learn from Cookies presentation? Here is the quiz that she gave the participants of the meeting before her presentation. We make it easier on this blog, here are the questions.

SWEDISH WRITERS QUIZ

  •  1. Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature? Extra point for naming one of her books.
  • 2. What filmmaker who made many many films also wrote many scripts? Name a film. Extra point for the name of one of his wives.
  • 3. The book and film, A Man Called Ove, was written by which Swedish writer? Extra points for naming another book he wrote.
  • 4. A favorite childhood book by Astrid Lindgren is called?
  • 5. A series of 3 bestselling books came out some years back by Steig Larsson. Name one of the trilogy: extra points for all three!
  • 6. Vilhelm Moberg wrote a 4 volume series called the Emigrants. What was it about?
  • 7. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö wrote about a male detective series situated in Stockholm. What was the name of the series? Who was the detective?
  • 8. Henning Mankell wrote many detective books. BBC created a series for television of one of his detectives. What was the series called? Extra points for the first name of the detective. Extra extra points for who starred in the series?

Here are the answers….

Interested in Swedish movies? You can find these on Netflix.





Fika meeting and 2024 updates

22 01 2025

Don’t forget the 2025 first SAHSWI Fika meeting on Saturday January 25, starting at 1:30 PM at Martin Luther Lutheran Church, 9235 West Bluemound Road, Milwaukee featuring Cookie Anderson presentation about Swedish Authors. January 25 Fika meeting.

Updates from the end of 2024

The end of the year is always a hectic time, we all celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. In addition, we have all important SAHSWI meetings and celebrations, our annual meeting in October, our participation in the Holiday Folk Fair International for 3 days in November, and our beautiful Lucia celebration in December. And, this year we were invited to celebrate the Swedish New Year at Lakefront Brewery. Here are some updates from these events.

  • Annual Meeting

2024 SAHSWI Annual General meeting was held on October 19, 2024, at Martin Luther Lutheran Church, Milwaukee. Congratulations to Janet Taylor, Irene Roberts, and Meg Haag who were elected to each serve a 3-year term on the Board of Directors. Already Board Directors Janet and Irene were re-elected to serve an additional 3-year term. We are very pleased to welcome Meg Haag as a newcomer on the Board. Meg is a member of St. Anskar’s Episcopal Church in Hartland and was together Sarah Hintz project team members on the State Historical Marker project, recognizing Gustaf Unonius, New Upsala, and The Scandinavian Parish. For the last three years Meg and Sarah hosted meetings at the church. Meg provided information and coordination with local area churches and Nashotah House Seminary and arranged the Heritage Tour in 2023 visiting Nashotah House, the Holy Innocents Cemetery, Chenequa Village Hall (the site of New Upsala) and St. Anskar’s Church.

Historical Marker at St. Anskar’s Church. Meg Haag in between Tracy Redman and Martha Bergland

Following the election, Officers and Committee leaders’ annual reports were presented. These reports are available on the SAHSWI website.

2024 annual reports.

A tribute to Harry H Anderson

The program at the Annual General Meeting was dedicated to Harry H Anderson who sadly passed away in May 2024. For a report on the program please go to

Link “A tribute to Harry H Anderson”

  • 2024 Holiday Folk Fair International

Swedish American Historical Society of Wisconsin together with Vasa Order of America, Linde Lodge represented Sweden in the Nordic Council of Wisconsin cultural booth at the Folk Fair at Milwaukee State Fair Park held from Friday November 22 to Sunday November 24. The theme for the Folk Fair was “Celebrate the Culture of Traditional Art”. Traditional Art embodies painting, pottery, sculpture, textiles, metalwork, and many others.

Left: SAHSWI members John Engel and Brent Erickson (Linde Lodge President). Right: Lisa, Joseph and Eli Kaltenberg

Items displayed included Table Runners, Pottery, Crystal, Wood Carvings, Gotland Sheep Skin, Children’s Clothing, and Straw Ornaments. Each reviewed in the attached short document.

Swedish display items

18 volunteers from Linde Lodge and SAHSWI represented Sweden during the three days, each working a 4-hrs shift. In the list below L=Member of Linde Lodge, S=Member of SAHSWI. Thank you very much to all volunteers.

Left: Arlette Johnson (Sons of Norway), Liza Ekstrand, Elaine Johnson Right: Allen, Linda and Anja Stenmark (Linde Lodge)

In a separate area a display was set up where a traditional dessert dish from each country was presented.

Nordic Council submission of typical desserts for each of the Nordic Countries
  • Lucia celebration 2024

The Lucia celebration has previously been reported. See 2024 Lucia celebration.

  • Swedish New Year celebration.

Several SAHSWI members participated in a Swedish New Year celebration at Lakefront Brewery. We appreciate this initiative by Lakefront Brewery. It was a sold-out event, and very well received by all who attended. What a great idea to celebrate the New Year at local 5 PM, midnight in Sweden.

Countdown to Swedish New Year…..Gott Nytt År