About the Writers Guild of Sweden

General

Writers Guild of Sweden looks after the economic and artistic interests of Swedish playwrights. We define playwrights as writers who produce texts that are supposed to be acted. Writers Guild of Sweden was founded in 1941 and can count almost all professional playwrights, scriptwriters and translators of drama in Sweden as its members. At present there are more than 650 of us, representing all dramatic areas: stage, television, radio, film and video/dvd.

Agreements

The Writers Guild of Sweden concludes agreements with Svensk Scenkonst (The Association of Swedish Theatres and Orchestras), Arbetsgivareföreningen SVT (Swedish public service television company), SR (Swedish public service radio company), TV4, Mediearbetsgivarna MIA (Swedish Media Employers’ Association) and ATR (The Association of Swedish Amateur Theatre), covering stage, radio theatre, television drama and screenplays. The agreements also cover translations, musical drama and scripts for revues. Writers Guild of Sweden assists at agreements and disputes about the interpretation of agreements and about tax and copyright matters.

Representation

Writers Guild of Sweden is represented in a number of Swedish and international organisations and institutions, for example KLYS (The Joint Committee for Artistic and Literary Professionals), Copyswede, ALIS (The Swedish Administration of Copyright in Literature), Svensk Teaterunion (The Swedish Centre of the ITI) and Nordisk Dramatikerunion (The Nordic Union of Playwrights). In Sveriges Författarfond (Swedish Writers’ Fund), SDF is represented in the Committee of Playwrights, which distributes artistic grants and project grants amongst active playwrights each year.
Writers Guild of Sweden is a member of the Federation of Scriptwriters in Europe, a European non-profit organization that works with various questions of interest for scriptwriters in the audiovisual field in Europe.

Information

Apart from informing our members by mail and e-mail, the Writers Guild of Sweden publishes the periodical JOURNAL, which contains not only information for the members but also addresses a wider audience of readers with an interest in Swedish drama and playwrights. JOURNAL contains everything from interviews with playwrights of current interest, comments and analyses of cultural politics, to lighter articles and even recipes.

Meetings

Writers Guild of Sweden organizes seminars, courses and discussions at regular intervals. In the last few years we have also organized meetings with directors and playwrights, as well as discussed readings, agents and agreements.

DramaDirectory

DramaDirectory is a virtual library of drama and was founded by the Writers Guild of Sweden in 1997 in order to increase the availability of Swedish drama. The plays are placed on the Internet for theatres and others in the trade, as well as the general public to search and read. At present many plays are only acted a few times in spite of successes on the stage. Plays pass from hand to hand, are Xeroxed and the copyright is neglected. This is also the case with translations, which are often corrupted and the original author is lost. In order to help playwrights in their delicate situation and to help theatres in their search for new material, the virtual drama bank was set up. The latest addition to DramaDirectory a project called Pearls, whick is Drama Directory’s collection of older plays. Here you can find a selection of plays from the history of Swedish dramatic writing.

Board and Employees

Members of the board include the following professional playwrights, scriptwriters and translators of drama: Rolf Börjlind (Chairman), Camilla Ahlgren, Stefan Ahnhem, Lars Björkman, Lucia Cajchanová, Pia Gradvall, Birgit Hageby, Mats Kjelbye, Magnus Lind and Magnus Lindman. Our managing director is Susin Lindblom, legal advisors is Sanna Lithell, deputy administrator is Linda Åhlström, information secretary is Åsa Lidström and Elin Hökby is deputy administrator of DramaDirectory.

Publicerad 2007-03-14 12:22
Senast ändrad 2009-09-28 15:01