Sweden's new culture canon, launched eight months ago, will be published as a book on May 8. The book, titled 'En kulturkanon för Sverige', is being released by the publisher Natur och Kultur. Lars Trädgårdh, who led the canon committee's work, is the editor and has written a new foreword.
The book includes the list of all 100 works with descriptions and presents results from the 'Folkets kanon' project, a website that collected Swedes' suggestions for the canon. Some political formalities and background have been removed. The text is an official inquiry already available for free online, with no copyright, so no royalties will be paid for the book.
How the government's culture canon will be used is not yet clear; the inquiry has been out for consultation and received criticism from several major institutions, and a recent report indicated the project is on hold as no proposition to parliament is planned.