Sara Lundberg author page

Sara Lundberg biography

Sara Lundberg (born 1971) is a Swedish author–illustrator of children’s books. She studied theatre and art at McDaniel College (BA, 1994) and later at Konstfack and the Royal Institute of Art. Her early career as a painter informed the mixed-media approach of her picture books. Lundberg has served as a member of the Swedish Academy for Children’s Books.

She has created and illustrated more than thirty titles, including the “Vita streck/Öjvind” sequence (Vita streck, 2009; Vita Streck och Öjvind, 2011; Öjvind och världens ände, 2013; Vita, Öjvind och Ingenting, 2015). Her acclaimed work Fågeln i mig flyger vart den vill (2017) is a fictionalised portrait of the artist Berta Hansson; the English edition, The Bird in Me Flies (Groundwood Books, 2020), was translated by B. J. Epstein. Subsequent publications include Dyksommar (with Sara Stridsberg, 2019), Jag och alla (with Ylva Karlsson, 2019), Glömdagen (2021) and Ingen utom jag (2024).

Lundberg’s awards include the August Prize for children’s and young adult literature in 2009 (co-author of Skriv om och om igen) and again in 2017 for Fågeln i mig flyger vart den vill. She received the Elsa Beskow Plaque (2012), Expressen’s Heffaklumpen (2013) and Snöbollen for Swedish Picture Book of the Year (2017). Her work has been recognised internationally; The Bird in Me Flies introduced English-language readers to Berta Hansson’s story in 2020, and Lundberg was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2024.

The Bird in Me Flies (Groundwood Books, 2020) was translated by B. J. Epstein.