Ester Chiedza Roxberg

Ester Chiedza Roxberg – Author, journalist, lecturer and documentary maker

Ester has written thirteen books for both children, teenagers and novels. She decided to become a writer already at the age of seven, and her literary carrier took off for real when she was awarded The Small August Prize for her poem Watch out little man, soon it will slam (Se upp lilla människa för snart smäller det) in 2004.

In 2011, Ester’s debut novel Antelopes was published to great critical acclaim. Based on Ester’s own experiences, Antelopes tells the story of two teenage girls, Astrid and Ellen, the closest of friends in spite of their differences. But Ellen gradually starts loosing her bearings and Astrid stands powerless as she witnesses her best friend’s downfall.

Her book, My father Ann-Christine – the Memory of a Secret (Min pappa Ann-Christine) is a story based on her own reality, and how much do we really know about our parents? In the year of 2010, 58-year-old priest and father of three, Åke Roxberg comes out as Ann-Christine, who today lives as a woman. This is the daughter Esther‘s story about what happens when you suddenly have a father named Ann-Christine. The book was nominated as Book of the year at the QX Gaygala and the movie based on the book premiered in 2020.

Ester Roxberg was born in Zimbabwe, after growing up in a small town in south of Sweden, she is now living in Malmö. She works and writes often in the south and east parts of Africa where she feels most at home.

Ester does author visits and lectures where she talks about how her growing up in an extreme right-wing countryside and how that rooted and shaped her writing and gave her a voice in the society. The urge to change and lift non-spoken about subjects is still her drive in everything she writes or works with.

Her upcoming novel will be published during 2024 by Natur & Kultur.