Ann Jäderlund was born in Stockholm, worked in different casual jobs, and also studied philosophy at university before her literary debut. In the late 1980s, she was a critic for the publication Bonniers Litterära Magasin. She lives in Stockholm together with her husband and son.
The poems in her debut collection Vimpelstaden, 1985, which has a humorous and absurd approach to language, are fragmentary, and the body of the first person in the poems is divided. Som en gång varit äng (P), 1988, depicts an intensive love story in which the first person swings back and forth between living to the full and fear of losing herself. Ann Jäderlund’s use of slightly distorted and varied quotations from folk-songs, hymns, and song hits became a hallmark of her technique, and the collection triggered off the so-called Jäderlund debate – a debate about incomprehensibility with regard to the aesthetically radical women poets of the 1980s.
Snart går jag i sommaren ut (P), 1990, a pendant to Som en gång varit äng, continues querying different types of dependence, here also in prose poem form. In Rundkyrka och sjukhuslängor vid vattnet / Himlen är förgylld av solens sista strålar (P), 1992, she uses a set form, iambic verse, in which the rhythm is broken. She uses the same kind of broken metre in mörker mörka mörkt kristaller (P), 1994, which describes the desire to sink into darkness and death. In 1987 she published the children’s book Ivans bok and also began to write drama, for example Salome, 1994.
Additions by the editorial team 2011:
The above biography was first published in 1998. Since then, Ann Jäderlund has written the poetry collections Kalender röd Levande av is, 2000, Blomman och människobenet, 2003, I en cylinder i vattnet av vattengråt, 2006, and Vad hjälper det en människa om hon häller rent vatten över sig i alla sina dagar, 2009. She has also written the children’s book Iris bok, 2002.
Ann Jäderlund has received several prizes, including De Nios stora pris (The Nine Society Grand Prize), 2003.