Lena Ollmark
With horror on her mind
Children's books
THE REVENANT
DREAM CREATURES
The Whipping Boy
The Night Train
The Nightmare Society 1
FROSTBITTEN
Stigmatized
Contained
Rights
Sweden
Awards & Nominations
2018 – Shortlisted for The Nordic Council Literature Prize
2017 – Shortlisted for The August Prize
2015 – Shortlisted for Swedish Radio Children Novel Award
As a child, Lena Ollmark read a lot. She devoured everything from horse books and CG Lewis to comic magazines. Early on, she was fascinated by horror and saved her sleep by creating scary stories out of her nightmares.
In the early 90’s she worked as a comic book editor, and during university studies she started writing scripts to comic books. Since 1995 she is a full time writer – working with many different types of texts and genres – from 30+ books and animated TV-series such as The Little Ghost Godfrey, to articles on popular psychology, focusing on depression, anxiety and trauma, sci-fi-stories in the pod format and a libretto.
But her main genre has always been horror and ghost stories for a young audience – the real horror lovers. She loves the drama, the strong emotions and the adrenalin rush connected to scary stories and believes that a good chill can spice up most tales – and the best ghost stories are the one that combine fear with humor and/or sadness.
Her Contained was nominated to Barnens romanpris i Sveriges Radio in 2015. In 2017 her and Per Gustavsson’s book The Horrible Story of Little She was Nominated for an August award and in 2018 the same title was nominated to The Nordic Council Literature Prize.
As a children’s writer, she regularly makes author visits to schools and talks to middle grade students about ghost stories and fears. She believes scary stories invite to critical thinking and brings out empathy since they often seek the origins behind evil deeds.
Ghost stories are fun and a great rush – but they can also be vaccine against stupidity. They give us the keys to understanding our fears and learn how today’s companies, politicians and media all use our fears to manipulate us.
Bibliography children’s fiction
(a selection)
The Nightground Trilogy
2023 – The Revenant (Genångaren), Horror novel 9-12
2022 – Dream Creatures (Drömväsen), Horror novel 9-12
2021 – The Whipping Boy (Strykpojken), Horror novel 9-12
The Children of Firn Village
2016 – Frostbitten (Frostbitna), children’s horror
2015 – Stigmatized (Brännmärkt), children’s horror
2014 – Contained (Inmurade), children’s horror
The Nightmare Society
2020 – The Nightmare Society 2, The Night Train (Nattåget), 5 horror stories for children
2019 – The Nightmare Society 1, Do you dare to read? (Vågar du läsa?), 5 horror stories for children