The Swedish Academy appoints a new Permanent Secretary
At its regular Thursday meeting, the Swedish Academy voted to appoint Mats Malm as its new Permanent Secretary, to take effect from 1 June 2019. He succeeds Anders Olsson, operative as Permanent Secretary since 1 June 2018.
“I am very happy to be given this trust and look forward to the honourable commission as Permanent Secretary,” says Mats Malm. “Together with the Academy’s members and staff, I will continue the vital work of renewal that has already commenced.”
Mats Malm, who was born in 1964, is professor of literary theory at the University of Gothenburg. In 1996 he defended his thesis on the nationalistic culture of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has written books on the early novel in Sweden; the baroque period; and on how scrutiny of literary works has advanced. In recent years his main project has been developing research methods for large textbases. He is head of the Swedish Literature Bank, working on the digitalisation of Swedish literature. Mats Malm is also interested in translation and has translated Icelandic sagas and The Prose Edda. Translation issues and how a literary work changes when translated into another language are prominent in his research. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Royal Swedish Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, and a member of the board of the Swedish Society for Belles-Lettres.