Members of the Swedish Academy
The Swedish Academy has eighteen members. It is said that Gustaf III originally intended there to be twenty, half the number of those in the French Academy, but eventually decided on eighteen because the Swedish word for that number had such a fine ring. Election is by secret ballot in the Academy, and before the result is made public it must be submitted to the Academy's Patron, the King, for his approval.
Writers were initially in the minority, most members being important officials. The first half of the nineteenth century was the epoch of great poets in the Swedish Academy, whereas the second half shows a prominent contribution from scholars, chiefly historians and linguists. During the twentieth century and up to its end the number of writers grew to represent more than half of The Eighteen. Apart from the writers the Academy of today also includes linguists, literary scholars, historians and a prominent jurist.
From its long history of being a heavily male dominated insitution the Swedish Academy has slowly moved towards better equality. From the 20 December 2019 one third of the chairs will belong to female Academy members.
Present members of the Swedish Academy:
Chair no 1 Eric M. Runesson, b. 1960 (elected 2018)
Chair no 2 Bo Ralph, b. 1945 (elected 1999)
Chair no 3 Vacant
Chair no 4 Anders Olsson, b. 1949 (elected 2008)
Chair no 5 Ingrid Carlberg, b. 1961 (elected 2020)
Chair no 6 Tomas Riad, b. 1959 (elected 2011)
Chair no 7 Åsa Wikforss, b. 1961 (elected 2019)
Chair no 8 Jesper Svenbro, b. 1944 (elected 2006)
Chair no 9 Ellen Mattson, b. 1962 (elected 2019)
Chair no 10 Peter Englund, b. 1957 (elected 2002)
Chair no 11 Mats Malm, b. 1964 (elected 2018), Permanent Secretary
Chair no 12 Per Wästberg, b. 1933 (elected 1997)
Chair no 13 Anne Swärd, b. 1969 (elected 2019)
Chair no 14 Steve Sem-Sandberg, b. 1958 (elected 2020)
Chair no 15 Jila Mossaed, b. 1948 (elected 2018)
Chair no 16 Vacant
Chair no 17 Horace Engdahl, b. 1948 (elected 1997)
Chair no 18 Tua Forsström, b. 1947 (elected 2019)