Tomasson, Torkel

Torkel Tomasson was born in Anundsjö parish (Ångermanland, Sweden)  in 1881 and lived in Vilhelmina. He died in 1940.

At the age of 25 he left reindeer-herding and studied at high school in Matarengi, Swedish Tornedalen. He took his final exam in Stockholm and studied at Uppsala University. In 1904 he became secretary of the first Sámi Central Organisation and founded "Lapparnes egen tidning" (that was published with five numbers). After a central Sámi meeting in Östersund in 1918 he could work as a journalist and editor for its successor "Samfeolkets egen tidning".

Tomasson was very interested in the ancient culture of the Sámi. In 1917, he conducted interviews with 26 Sámi elders, most of whom had grown up during the 1850s and 1860s. Most of the interviews were conducted in Vilhelmina, but he also recorded in Tärnaby, Sorsele, Härjedalen and Jämtland. The recordings contain extensive descriptions of Southern Sámi fairy tales, folklore, and traditions. Tomasson's material is unique in that he and the interview subjects conversed in their native Southern Saami language.

The publication of his Några sägner, seder och bruk upptecknade efter lapparna i Åsele- och Lycksele lappmark samt Herjedalen sommaren 1917 [Sámi tales, traditions, and customs recorded in Åsele, Lycksele, and Herjedalen in the summer of 1917] (in Swedish and Southern Saami). Uppsala, Sweden: Institutet för språk och folkminnen, Dialekt- och folkminnesarkivet i Uppsala, was released in 1988.

Pirak, Anta

Anta Pavvasson Pirak, born 1873 in the Jokkmokk Municipality, who died 1951 in Jåhkågasska tjiellde, a community of mountain saami in Swedish Norrbotten, is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in Saami literature.

Pirak was educated at the teacher's seminar in Mattisudden in 1892-94 and worked temporarily as small school teacher in different Saami camps beside keeping a reindeer herd.

In the summer of 1926, the reindeer herder Pirak met with the priest Harald Grundström and the two of them decided to collaborate in noting down Pirak’s life story and his repertoire of Saami folklore. Pirak was the master storyteller, while Grundström refers to his own role as Pirak’s “secretary”. The resulting book, En nomad och hans liv, ‘A nomad and his life’, was first published in Swedish translation in 1933. The original Lule Saami text was published four years later, and was followed by an accompanying Lule Saami–Swedish–German wordlist in 1939.

Sara, Elna

Born in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, Norway, in 1959, where she also lives. From a reindeer herding family, she has worked in the field of international cooperation in reindeer husbandry since 1990. She worked for NBR-NRL, the Sámi Reindeer Herders Association of Norway, for 15 years. 

Sámi and English translator of academic texts. She has also translated the book on Britta Marakatt-Labba Broderade berättelser. Sággon Muitalusat (2010).

Wuolab, Anne

Born in Narvik, Norway, in 1970, Anne Wuolab lives in Lycksele, Sweden. She works as a writer and cultural journalist and is Chairwoman of the Sami writer association in Sweden, Bago čálliid siebrie.
 
In 2016 she received the Region Västerbotten Culture Prize for literature.

Tapio, Inghilda

Inger Gunhild Maria, called Inghilda Tapio, née Valkeapää, was born in February 1946. Her parents were nomads and their siida Rásat/Márkosat belongs to Sweden's northernmost Sami village Könkämävuoma/Rostu. At the age of seven, she came to the nomadic school and got to stay at a boarding school, Nomadskolehemmet, for the children of mountain sami. "I was literally thrown into a strange world with a different way of life and forced to live among people who spoke a language I did not understand. Everything I knew and everything I had learnt about was taken away from me."

At Umeå University, she studied Swedish, Sami, English, Pedagogics and Children's language development followed by 3 years of Art education at the Folk high school of Sunderby. After studying dramaturgy and film making in Inari in northern Finland she has been writing, drawing, painting and has held classes in creative activities, has had own exhibitions, has been writing screenplays for short film, fiction and theater and made some translations. She has for a long time worked as a teacher and from time to time as an actress in Dálvádis/Sami Theater in Kiruna.

For her first book of poetry Ii fal dan dihte she received The Nordic Sami Council's Literature Prize and in 2013 the Harry Martinson scholarship for her poetry.

Fjellner, Anders

Born on 18th of September 1795 in Rutfjällen in Härjedalen (Sweden, South Sápmi), died on 22 of February 1876 in Sorsele (south sami: Suarsa, umesami Suorssá), Sweden. 
Anders Fjellner was a pastor, collector of Sámi folklore, and author. He became famous through the poem Päiven Pārne᾿ / Biejvien Bárnieh (Son of the Sun), that was translated in many languages already during his lifetime. 
Graduating in 1821 in Uppsala, Fjellner became a substitute clergyman in Jukkasjärvi and Karesuando parish in North Sweden. After 20 years in the Karesuando area, Fjellner moved to his new post as pastor in Sorsele, where he remained for the rest of his life. In Sorsele Fjellner was visited by Gustav von Düben and Otto Donner and several other well-known researchers who wrote down his stories and myths.