Håkan Sandell

Håkan Sandell (born 16 February 1962 in Västra Skrävlinge) is a Swedish poet.

Life and career Håkan Sandell emerged in the 1980s as a member of Malmöligan, a group of poets based in Malmö, consisting of Sandell, Clemens Altgård, Per Linde, Kristian Lundberg, Lukas Moodysson and Martti Soutkari. Although diverse in style and subjects, the members were inspired by punk rock, the Danish poet Michael Strunge and differed from the politicised poetry that had dominated Sweden in the 1970s. The group disbanded in 1993 after which Sandell moved to Denmark, Ireland and eventually Norway.

In the 1990s, Sandell and Altgård wrote the pamphlet Om retrogardism ("on retrogardism"), in which they advocated a literature rooted in traditional expressions. Sandell has mentioned the painter Odd Nerdrum as an important influence for this direction away from modernism. The first Nerdrum painting he saw was Return of the Sun, through which he realised which qualities modernism was missing: "the pathetic, the heroic, the sentimental, the nostalgic, the decadent, the Luciferian, the declamatory, the dramatic, the Dantean! (Dantesque?), the Gothic, late Manierism, Romanticism, historicism, symbolism, etc."

A volume of Sandell's poetry titled Dog Star Notations: Selected Poems 1999 - 2016 appeared in English in 2016, translated by Bill Coyle and published by Carcanet Press.

Selected bibliography 1981 – Cathy, poetry 1982 – Europé, poetry 1983 – En poets blod, poetry 1984 – Efter sjömännen ; Elektrisk måne, poetry 1986 – Johnny – en bokfilm, prose 1988 – Flickor, poetry 1990 – Skampåle, poetry 1991 – Dikter för analfabeter, poetry 1992 – Bestiarium, privat print 1994 – Fröer och undergång, poetry 1995 – Om retrogardism, pamphlet (with Clemens Altgård) 1995 – Mikkel Rävs skatt 1996 – Sjungande huvud, poetry 1999 – Midnattsfresken, poetry 2002 – Traditionens uppvaknande, essays 2002 - Så som skymningen älskar dig, translations from Amanda Aizpuriete 2003 – Oslo-Passionen, poetry 2003 – Gåvor : valda dikter 1984-2002, poetry 2004 – Begynnelser : en barndom i tjugotvå dikter, poetry 2006 – Skisser till ett århundrade, poetry 2009 – Gyllene dagar, poetry 2012 – Jag erkänner att jag levde upp mitt liv, translations 2013 – Ode till demiurgen, poetry

Accolades 2004 – Kallebergerstipendiet from the Swedish Academy 2007 – Sveriges Essäfonds pris from Föreningen för Sveriges Kulturtidskrifter 2010 – De Nios Vinterpris from Samfundet De Nio