Kjell Westö

Writing

Born: August 6, 1961

Birthplace: Helsinki, Finland

Kjell Anders Westö, born August 6, 1961, in Helsinki, is a Finnish-Swedish author. He made his debut as a poet in 1986 but quickly switched to writing short stories and eventually to novels. He made his breakthrough with the novel Drakarna över Helsingfors (1996), which together with Vådan av att vara Skrake (2000), Där vi en gång gått (2006) and Gå inte ensam ut i natten (2009) form a suite of stand-alone novels about Helsinki. Westö received the Finlandia Prize in 2006 for Där vi en gång gått and in 2014 he was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize for Hägring 38.