Novels, drama, essays and public intellectual life — with women, memory and power as recurring subjects.
Author · playwright · journalist · critic
Upcoming book · 22 April 2026
Den ropande flickan
A dark, charged novel about childhood testimony, guilt, friendship and the price of truth.
The language is rich, the notoriously difficult erotic scenes hold, indeed impress, and the biographical material is genuinely fascinating.
Books
Seven published titles between 2001 and 2023: novels, an essay and a biography arranged as a single literary archive.
Latest publication
2023
Novel
Publisher pageRomanus & Selling, 2023
A furious, unruly portrait of the woman and artist Marika Stiernstedt. A novel about the lies we live by, power struggles and the writing of biography. Who gets to say what, about whom?
Press voice
The language is rich, the notoriously difficult erotic scenes hold, indeed impress, and the biographical material is genuinely fascinating.
2021
2021
Novel
Publisher pageNatur & Kultur, 2021
Although Kristina spent years trying to free herself from the crown, she now bitterly regrets it. She looks back on her life as Sweden's monarch and wonders why everything turned out as it did. What might she have done differently?
It is this double perspective that makes the novels so fascinating. The protagonist becomes so vividly alive that deep down we cannot help hoping what we know will happen might somehow not need to happen.
2016
2016
Novel
Publisher pageNatur & Kultur, 2016
It is the early seventeenth century. Sweden is a newly awakened nation-state entering exhausting wars: looted riches for the court, starvation for the people. At the center stands Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, a shrewd operator.
A tasteful account of the age of empire... at moments it recalls two of our major writers, PO Enquist and Per Wästberg.
2010
2010
Novel
Natur & Kultur, 2010
The middle-aged teacher Johan is struck by something that may be infatuation, or something worse. A feverish account of suggestion and delusion, a triangle drama with fateful consequences for everyone involved.
A modern moral portrait.
2008
2008
Novel
Publisher pageNatur & Kultur, 2008
The novel about the servant Hannah and the gentleman Arthur is a compelling story of how two people from opposite ends of the Victorian caste system meet and form a symbiotic relationship that overtakes their lives.
The occasionally dark and ambiguous quality of the story gives the direct, lucid language a poetic spark.
2003
2003
Essay
Publisher pageAlbert Bonniers Förlag, 2003
A personal, winding book that explores medieval history and saints' legends. It departs from pilgrimages, including Santiago de Compostela, and reflects on faith, blisters and relics.
Ulrika Kärnborg's pilgrimage narrative Stjärnfältet is checked out at every library.
2001
2001
Biography
Natur & Kultur, 2001
Fredrika Bremer is best known as one of the pioneers of the women's movement. As a writer she is nearly forgotten, despite being one of Sweden's most read and debated authors in the nineteenth century. The biography restores Bremer as a European intellectual grappling with the major questions of her age.
At last. A passionate nineteenth-century intellectual meets her congenial interpreter.
Public life
Critic, editorial writer, editor and columnist in Swedish public culture. Her voice moves between cultural journalism, public debate, drama and literary essays.
Playwriting debut in 2012 with Natascha Kampusch at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm. For Swedish Radio Drama she wrote, among other works, Maria Vilas död, nominated for Prix Italia.
Awarded Samfundet De Nios Vinterpris in 2026.
A US edition of Kött och ande is planned with FSG.
Available for conversations on novels, criticism, drama and biographical work.
About
Ulrika Kärnborg is an established Swedish author who works as a playwright, journalist and cultural critic. She studied literature, cultural studies and journalism at Lund University and Roskilde University. Her practice spans novels, biography, stage work, radio and public intellectual life.
Press and contact
Readers
Go straight to Den ropande flickan at Romanus & Selling.
Press and editorial
For interviews, reviews and features — biography and works provide a concise introduction.
Festivals and stage
Background on theatre, radio and public intellectual work.
Ulrika Kärnborg
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