Kevin Frato’s Novel “Not Swedish”

Mr Frato’s novel “Numera negerkung” won’t be winning this year’s August Prize because the jury have decided it isn’t Swedish.

Kerstin Aronsson, head of Kabusa Books which published Mr Frato’s novel, thought that “Numera negerkung” was so significant that she nominated it for this year’s Augustpris – one of Sweden’s major literary prizes.

Unfortunately, the Swedish Publishers Association rejected it on the grounds that it wasn’t “written in Swedish”.

“I think being disqualified due to the book’s language is a sign I’ve something entirely new which the Swedish Publisher’s Association doesn’t know how to deal with,” Mr Frato, who teaches at the school, told Latest News.

“It also raises the question of language and identity: what they are essentially saying is that even if we live our lives bilingually, our stories are only valid if they’re written entirely in Swedish. And that’s one of the things I set out to disprove by writing this novel.”

Despite the reaction of the Swedish Publishers Association, everyone at IEGS is very proud of Mr Frato’s achievment and wishes him every success with the book.

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Read Mr Frato’s own response (på svenska) on his blog