Biography

Birgitta and her husband live north of San Francisco, in a house on a hill, overlooking the ocean. When not writing, she walks along the bluff and up into the forest, alone or with friends. Tutoring local children keeps her grounded.

      She studied Swedish, English and German Literature, earning Master’s Degrees from the University of Lund, Sweden, and the University of California at Davis. While covering the San Francisco art beat as a contributing editor for Art & Auction in New York, she also wrote Artful Players, a book on early California art, published by Balcony Press.

“One must know the world so well before one can know the parish.”

      Turning to fiction, she drew on memories of her native Sweden, where she spent her childhood summers in a village much like the one we encounter in Fylgia. Sarah Orne Jewett’s words to Willa Cather still hold true: “Of course, one day you will write about your own country. In the meantime, get all you can. One must know the world so well before one can know the parish.”

Journal

by Birgitta Hjalmarson

She Sat the Whole Time Cold

She Sat the Whole Time Cold

Journal by Birgitta HjalmarsonThe castle in Stockholm was cold. Descartes had died here in 1650, supposedly freezing to death. Queen Kristina, whom he had come to tutor, would abdicate and flee to Rome. In 1891, when Victoria arrived from her native Germany, the old...

On Writing.

On Writing.

Journal by Birgitta Hjalmarson This interview was originally published by Lori's Book Loft at author-spotlight-birgitta-hjalmarson.html. Please tell us a little about growing up in Sweden and your studies? I grew up in a town on the West Coast...

When Swedish Farmers Marched.

When Swedish Farmers Marched.

Journal by Birgitta Hjalmarson       In the years before the First World War, as tension mounted on the continent, the Swedish political parties drew their own internal battle lines. The Conservatives championed a stronger defense, opposed by...