Johannes Anyuru

Who is Johannes Anyuru?

Johannes Anyuru, born 23 March 1979, is a Swedish poet and author. His father is from Uganda and his mother is Swedish.

Anyuru debuted in 2003 with Det är bara gudarna som är nya, a poetry collection. In this collection of poems used Homer's epic Iliad as a background and inspiration for the portrayal of immigrant neighborhoods. A place that is often mentioned in his poetry is the area around Mörners road in Växjö, where Anyuru lived as a child. Reviews of this book linked his style to both older contemporary Swedish poets as Göran Sonnevi or Tomas Tranströmer, and hip hop band The Latin Kings. Anyurus second poetry collection, Omega, is a much more downbeat since it deals with the loss of a close friend to cancer. Anyurus third collection, Städerna inuti Hall was published in 2009 and describes sad socio-political landscape.

His fourth book Skulle jag dö under andra himlar is not a poetry book, but prose.

He has also worked with spoken word as part of the group Broken Word and a touring performance with National Theatre Company called Abstrakt rap. Both projects has been released as Cd’s.