Olivia Bergdahl (b. 1989) began her career as a spoken word poet at the age of twelve and became somewhat of a child prodigy of Swedish stage poetry when, in 2007, she won the Swedish Poetry Slam Championship at just 17 years old, debuting that same year with the poetry collection Demo.

Since then, she has placed fourth in the World Poetry Slam Championship, formed the poetry and string quartet ensemble Olivias Poesiorkester, released an album (Eldorado), published a critically acclaimed novel (Efter Ekot), co-founded the international spoken word club Klubb Kontra with Oskar Hanska, served as artistic supervisor for the project Hembygd – någonstans i Sverige, written columns for Göteborgs-Posten for years, made numerous radio appearances as house poet, a few TV appearances, written and presented Tankar för dagen on Sveriges Radio P1, received several grants, been named West Swedish Author of the Year, won Sveriges Radio’s Short Story Prize, conducted countless workshops, and above all toured, toured, toured for hundreds, thousands of days—across Sweden, the Nordic region, Europe, and the US.