The Axel Hirsch Prize is a literary prize awarded by the Swedish Academy since 1969 after a donation from Swedish philanthropist and “folkbildare” Axel Hirsch. The Prize is awarded to authors who in recent years have published a biography of high artistic and cultural-historical value or a significant historical work. Sverker Sörlin’s recent publications Ice Humanities. Living, Working and Thinking in a Melting World (2022, with Klaus Dodds) and Snö. En historia (2024) are mentioned as part of his contributions to significant historical works.
We asked Sverker Sörlin what it means to him for receiving the Axel Hirsch Prize
Receiving a prize means that some people have, first, engaged profoundly with your work and, second, found it useful and worthy of recognition. That is a privilege. It is humbling and an honour, and something you can never take for given quite simply because there is always a lot of good work to choose from.
I also think it is a recognition for the kind of historical writing that I pursue, trying in some of my books to craft a literary non-fiction that I hope can reach out to people and, quite literally, move them and make them reflect in new ways about not just the past but also about the biggest challenges of our own time, such as climate change and loss of safety and security.
It is a particular honour to receive a prize in the name of Axel Hirsch who donated money to the Swedish Academy. Hirsch was a Stockholm based philanthropist of Jewish descent who engaged in social policy and work for the poor. He was also a passionate supporter of a widened general education, "folkbildning", which I have also always practised, thinking of knowledge as a liberating force for both the individual and for society.
The two other recipients of the award in 2025 are Anders Burman, idea historian at Södertörn University and Daniel Pedersen, a literary scholar and translator.
