Jonas Gardell

Lars Jonas Holger Gardell (born 2 November 1963 in Täby) is a Swedish novelist, playwright, screenwriter and comedian.

Since his debut as an author in 1979, Gardell has written numerous novels, television and film scripts, shows, and song lyrics. He is well known for his books and plays in all of the Nordic countries. His books have been translated into some twenty-five languages. Among his most notable novels are En komikers uppväxt (A Comedian's Upbringing, 1992) and the trilogy Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves (Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar), published between 2012 and 2013. Both novels have been adapted into television series broadcast on SVT, and En komikers uppväxt has also been made into a feature film.

Gardell has won several awards, including a Guldbagge Award for Best Screenplay for Pensionat Oskar, the Swedish TV award Kristallen for the series De halvt dolda, the Prix Futura for the novel En komikers uppväxt, the Fröding Scholarship, the Stora Svenska Talarpriset, and the Tage Danielsson Award in 1996. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology from Lund University, in 2013 an honorary doctorate in medicine from Linköping University, and in 2018 an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, and Theology at Åbo Akademi University.

Early life

Jonas Gardell is the son of , professor of social psychology, and Ingegärd Gardell, psychologist, née Rasmussen. He is the brother of Mattias Gardell, a historian and scholar of comparative religion and , a documentary filmmaker.

Gardell's parents separated when he was young (they divorced in 1983) and his father left the family for his career and a new woman. Gardell has said on several occasions that his father was the kind of person who was only ever loved but never showed love in return. The divorce hit Gardell hard, and he has said in retrospect that "no safety net could have withstood the crash my family went through then.

Career

Writing

In 1985, Gardell published his first novel, Passionsspelet (The Passion Play). The novel deals with his homosexuality, about being able to be who you are and being accepted by others and yourself.

Gardell himself has described how, during the early part of his writing career, he mainly wrote relatively thin books that revolved around his upbringing in the 1970s, one example being the trilogy En komikers uppväxt (A Comedian's Upbringing, 1992), which has become both a TV series and a movie. After the novel Jenny (2006), he felt he was done with autobiographical writing, and his writing took on a more documentary focus, with several novels depicting LGBTQ history in Sweden.

Gardell has hosted the Swedish radio show Sommar i P1 in 1990, 1991, 1992, 2013, and 2019, and its winter edition, Vinter, in 1991 and 2008.

In 2013, Gardell was elected "Homo Bi Trans Person of the Year" at the Swedish Gaygalan Awards, for the book (Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves). His prize was presented to him by the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria.

Honorary Doctorates

Gardell's faith is a recurring theme in his work, and he cites the Bible as his greatest source of inspiration. In December 2007, Gardell was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology from Lund University with the following justification:

Throughout his writing career, he has focused on marginalized people who are excluded from society, with a strong emphasis on defending human dignity and human rights. Few people can bring people together across generations and combine humor and seriousness with such accuracy as he can, making him an important social commentator and critic.

On May 17, 2013, Gardell was awarded an honorary doctorate in medicine at Linköping University. This time, part of the motivation, "for his multifaceted description of a dark chapter in Swedish medical history," met with some criticism.

On May 25, 2018, Gardell was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by the Faculty of Humanities, Theology, and Psychology at Åbo Akademi University.

Personal life

Gardell began living with Mark Levengood in 1986 and entered into a registered partnership with him in 1995. In 2011, Gardell and Levengood married. They remained married until 2023. The couple has two children, a son that Gardell has with his friend Ingeborg Svensson and a daughter that Levengood has with Fanny Ambjörnsson.