Sven Nordqvist

was born in 1946 in Helsingborg and has been drawing and painting all his life. At a young age he often drew inspiration often from MAD magazine with its unique images. He studied architecture at the Lund Institute of Technology and worked as such for a year. He then worked as a teacher at the School of Architecture in Lund for a year. After that, he freelanced as a commercial artist and has also illustrated textbooks, fiction, posters and cards. During 1975-85, he also worked a lot with graphics.

Sven Nordqvist became a children's Book Author and illustrator when he won the 1983 Opals publishing hous picture book contest with Agaton Öman och alfabetet. The big breakthrough came with the next book Pancake for Findus, when we first became acquainted with the old man Pettson and his cat Findus.

After 16 years living with his family in the countryside, Sven Nordqvist and his wife now live in Stockholm Sweden.

He won the August Prize

in the category of Swedish children's and young adult books in 2007 for his picture book ”Where is my sister?” Sven Nordqvist and Mats Wahl's book about an East Indiaship, ”The long journey” was nominated for the August Prize in 1998. On February 2, 2015  Sven Nordqvist was awarded Expressen Youth Culture prize Heffaklumpen for his efforts.

Photographer: Stefan Tell