A guided tour of English-language Swedish blogs

Jan 8, 2006

You haven't seen me writing much about daily life in Sweden on this blog for some time, but that's just because I tend to blog what's new to me. Currently, most of my daily blogging allowance is spent on Ogle Earth.

Fortunately, there are many English-language bloggers that are connected to Sweden in some way, so I thought I might take you on a guided tour of the anglo-Swedish blogosphereDefined as blogs where a majority of the writing is in English, and thus accessible to outsiders.

First, three blogs that come with enormous helpings of "voice""Voice", as defined in the latter half of this New Yorker article., and which you can count among my absolute favorites:Looking over these three favorites, I seems to me that one reason their authors give such good blog is that they've found a clever literary device and stuck with it. Emi writes letters, Francis has his word of the day and Femina sends us intelligence reports. Lesson #1 for better blogging: Choose a genre and exploit all its possibilities.

Kommissarie F. Curiosa: Feminine curiosity can be deadly ("An 'under-the-covers' investigation of the strong, silent, nordic type"): An American girl in Sweden artfully navigates the Stockholm dating scene, and then reports back. She's the real thing, her existence vouched for at Bloggforum. Femina has an ear for conversations worthy of Overheard in New York, and packages these in heart-on-sleeve writing that never overshares.

Letters to Marc Jacobs ("A diary of sorts, chronicling the failures of my efforts to create a perfect life."): Emi's found a great literary ploy for her particular kind of stories. On the surface, what she writes look like dear-diary entries, but there is always a bigger idea lurking — a moral, if you will — which betrays planning and talent. (Great recent post)

How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons by Francis Strand: This 2005 Bloggie winnerNominations are now open for the 2006 Bloggies, BTW needs no introduction. Every word Francis writes is there for a reason, just as with my favorite authors. And his entries are short. (I suspect that's because he is an editor.)

CultureLesson #2: Blog what you're passionate about
Karin's style blog ("Looking at the world with a designer's eye."): Style and design pointers infused with Swedish sense and sensibility.

kokblog: Gorgeous-looking food blog by Johanna Kindvall, often about Swedish food.

Giornale Nuovo: Mr. H.'s dedication to blogging the illustrated arts is humbling. As is his knowledge of esoterica.

Noisedfisk ("Upnorth culture"): Nordic cultural trends viewed, reviewed and interviewed.

Red Volume: Mikael Jergefelt is addicted to new music, and reports his latest discoveries.

Sounds like Funday: Once a week, annotated music downloads to get you in the mood for the weekend.

MediaLesson #3: Find a niche and dominate it.
Media Culpa ("Two Swedish eyes on media and public relations"): Hans Kullin is among the best in his niche.

Adland ("Disadformation"): ≈sk Dabitch is another Swede who dominates a niche globally with her blog.

Markmedia: A lecturer at Stockholm university, Mark posts plenty of journalism resources as he finds them.

PoliticsWith the exception of Margot, who really blogs from an international perspective, I've found no English-language Swedish blog that covers politics from left-of-center. Am I missing any?
Johan Norberg ("Liberalism — Capitalism — Globalisation"): Well-informed one-man ideological juggernaut in defence of free trade and liberalism.

Margot Wallstrˆm: Europe's vice president blogs up a comment storm with every post.

Stambord: Group blog by Anglo-saxons doing their best to be a thorn in the side of Swedish media.

Bildt Comments ("A European in Sweden on European and International Developments."): Swedish ex-PM Carl Bildt ruminates on international politics as he roams the world.

Technology
456 Berea Street: When it comes to web design, Roger Johansson is an altruistic genius — the proof is his bloggie-nominated blog full of web-design tips.

Suburbia: Patrick Strang keeps tabs on new trends that interest him. He spots them quite early.

Em-brof ("Emmanuel FrÈconís Professional Blog, i.e. personal things about my work."): Tech watch by a pro.

Ogle Earth ("A blog about the wonderful things being done with Google Earth."): Sure, it's written in Sweden, but a shameless plug nonetheless.

Karl Jonsson's Weblog: Karl blogs law and technology, keeping an eye on events in Sweden as well.

Smart stuff ("The world's smartest stuff"): A blog about cleverly designed things — where clever does not necessarily mean high-tech.

Robert's talk: Robert Nyman riffs on web design and standards.

Expat
Tracey Marshall knows Swedish
Notes from Sweden
How I learned to stop worrying and love herring
Lizardek's obiter dictum
ShazzerSpeak
Accepting the Stockholm Syndrome...
Give us this day our kn‰ckebrˆd

Unclassifiable, occasional and/or personalApologies in advance for all those English language blogs I have forgotten or don't know about. Feel free to complete the lists in the comments.
Andreas Viklund
The many faces of L (Lotta Holmstrˆm)
Tesugen (Peter Lindberg, sometimes in English)
Erik Wahlforss ("Thoughts, Links and Portfolio")
The sum of my parts (stephanie Hendrick)
In Broken English (Steffanie M¸ller)
Workers dojo (Rosemarie Sˆdergren)
Trams! (Niklas Dahlin)
Medoue
Annicapannika
Ann-Charlotte
Battleangel
Europundit
Soul Sphincter
NÈablog
Different Opinion
Euroblog
Cinema Volta
Where is my mind?

Finally, The Local is not a blog, but it is Swedish news in English. You can also find news and reference material at Sweden.se.

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