Viveka Sjögren Bangoura, Chair of the International Council at the Swedish Writers’ Union, writer and illustrator of childrens’ and young adult books, was co-opted on 26 November 2020 as regular board member for the term 2019-2021.

In mid November 2020 Ružica Cindori, from the Croatian Writers’ Association,  stepped down from the EWC board.
“We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Ružica for her more than five years of honorary board membership and her dedication to the rights of all writers and translators”, says Nina George, EWC President, on behalf of the Board. “We wish Ružica the best, and above all, more time for literature and poetry.”

The EWC Board followed the provision in article 20 that allows to replace a board member until the next Annual General Assembly (June 2021).

“We are pleased and grateful that Viveka Sjögren Bangoura of the Swedish Writers’ Union will enrich the EWC Board with her expertise, passion for authors, translators and their rights, organisational talent and profound experience”, underlines Nina George. “As a writer for children’s and young adult literature, she complements the profile and the diverse perspectives of the current board perfectly.”

“Things adults say to children: Rockets can’t talk. Stones can’t drown. Hands can’t see. Adults need to stop saying such things, because it gives children unnecessary walls, restricts their endless views and captures their imagination to correct it, to master it”, says the new EWC Board Member Sjögren Bangoura. “In art and literature, rockets can talk, stones can drown, hands can see. At a time like this, with threats of varying visibility against the free nature of democracy, with reprisals against dissidents and minority groups in society, with an environment sighing under excessive burdens and with a pandemic raging across the earth like a grass fire in windy weather, we need art and literature more than ever. We need it to understand our present, to be able to fantasize about a future, to sum up our past. We need it to be able to dream and to be able to see. Working together for these values, united across borders and language lines is deeply valuable and absolutely vital”, Viveka Sjögren Bangoura underlines the importance of her engagement and commitment for literature and the sources of the book value chain: the authors and translators.

Viveka Sjögren Bangoura initiated the #freewordsbelarus-campaign, and realized it together with Daniel Cristea-Enache, EWC Vive-President, and Nina George, President. 36 Presidents and Board Members of 33 writers’ and translators’ organisations from 22 countries joined voices to support the democracy movement in Belarus.

Read more about the background and activities of Viveka Sjögren Bangoura.