Eva Elisabeth "Liza" Marklund (born 9 September 1962) is a Swedish journalist and crime writer.
Her novels, of which most feature the fictional newspaper journalist Annika Bengtzon, have been published in forty languages. Marklund is the co-owner of Sweden's third largest publishing house, Piratförlaget [sv], and has worked as a journalist as well as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.
Life
She was born in Pålmark near Piteå, Norrbotten.
Marklund lives in Spain with her husband Mikael.
Career
Since her debut in 1995, Liza Marklund has written eleven crime novels in her Annika Bengtzon series, the stand-alone novel The Black Pearl Farm as well as the first novel in her new series, The Polar Circle Trilogy. In addition, she has co-authored two documentary novels with Maria Eriksson and one non-fiction book about female leadership with Lotta Snickare. Marklund's crime novels featuring crime reporter Annika Bengtzon have become international bestsellers. She won the "Poloni Prize" (Polonipriset) 1998 for "Best Swedish Crime Novel by a Female Writer" and "The Debutant Prize", (Debutantpriset) 1998 for "Best First Novel of the Year" with the crime novel Sprängaren (The Bomber), published in 1998.[1][2] Marklund was named Author of the Year in Sweden 1999 by the Swedish trade union SKTF, won the radio network RixFM's Swedish Literary Prize in 2007, and was selected the fifteenth most popular woman in Sweden of 2003 and the fourth most popular woman in Sweden of 2004 in a yearly survey with 1,000 participants, conducted by ICA-kuriren, a publication published by a Swedish supermarket chain.[3]
Her books have been number one bestsellers in all five Nordic countries.[4] In 2002 and 2003, two of Liza Marklund's crime novels were listed on the international bestseller lists by the online magazine Publishing Trends, Prime Time ranking #13 and The Red Wolf ranking #12.[5] In Scandinavia and Germany, her non-fiction novels have become the center of a heated controversy.[6][7]
The Postcard Killers, a crime thriller written in collaboration with American bestselling author James Patterson, was published on January 27, 2010, in Sweden and became number one on the Swedish bestseller list in February 2010.[8]
It was published on 16 August 2010 in the United States.[9][10]
At the end of August, it reached number one in the New York Times Best Seller list, making Liza Marklund the second Swedish author (the first one being Stieg Larsson with the Millennium Trilogy) to reach the number one spot.[11]
Buried Alive: A True Story is the 1995 literary debut of Swedish author Liza Marklund. It is the first novel in the Maria Eriksson series. The novel is based on a true story and deals with a woman who is abused by her boyfriend and forced into hiding. Swedish journalist Monica Antonsson released a book in 2008 criticising the factual background of Buried Alive[12][13] leading to a public debate about the book and the public libraries of Sweden reclassifying all editions from non-fiction to fiction.
The Annika Bengtzon series consists of eleven books. The framework of the Annika Bengtzon series is crime reporter Annika's hectic life, at a bustling tabloid called Kvällspressen in Stockholm, Sweden. Her conflict lies in combining motherhood with her career ambitions. Prior to The Bomber, there were very few female commercially successful crime writers in Sweden. Marklund placed 22nd on the list of the most influential media personality of 2008 in Sweden, a list established yearly by the trade magazine for the advertising industry, Resumé.[14]
Two films based on Annika Bengtzon novels, The Bomber and Paradise (2003), have been filmed in Swedish by the English director Colin Nutley. The actress Helena Bergström starred in the role as Annika Bengtzon in both movies. They premiered in 2001[15] and 2003.[16] In 2009, the film and TV production company Yellow Bird bought the rights to adapt an additional six Annika Bengtzon novels for the screen: Studio 69, Prime Time, The Red Wolf, Nobel's Last Will, Lifetime, and A Place in the Sun. In these six films Annika Bengtzon is played by Swedish actress Malin Crépin.[17]
UNICEF ambassador
In 2004 Liza Marklund was appointed ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF. The reason was her long interest in issues related to human rights. She travels regularly on behalf of the UNICEF and has, among other things, especially covered questions related to child slavery and children with HIV and AIDS in the third world.[18][19][20]
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