Gabriel Itkes-Sznap made his debut in poetry in 2005 with the book “Tolvfingertal” (Twelve-Fingered Speech, publ. by Albert Bonniers Förlag), which drew the attention of audience and critics and was nominated for the Debut Prize of the newspaper Borås, the most important award for debuting writers in Sweden. “Tolvfingertal” has been partly translated to German and explores a distorted Old Testament world, focusing on a family and the violence erupting between its members, basing the poems on an almost unidentifiable religious ritual over a background of exile and displacement. Other than being a poet, Gabriel Itkes-Sznap also researches Aesthetics at Södertörn University. In the past, he had worked as editor for a publishing house and as literary critic for the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. He comes from a Jewish family originating from Poland and currently lives in Stockholm with his wife and two children.