Alvina Chamberland

(USA) is a Swedish-American author of predominantly literary autofiction novels, residing between Athens and Berlin. She has an MA in gender studies from Sodertorns University Stockholm, with a thesis on trans feminine sisterhood and intersectionality in New York City. In 2015 she published in Sweden her co-authored book Allt som ar Mitt: Valdtakt, Stigmatisering och Upprattelse (English translation: All that is mine: Rape, Stigmatization and Reparation). In September 2018 her novel Utelast – Uppvaxt- nostalgi for freaks (Locked Out – A nostalgic account of growing up for freaks) a parody of the coming of age-genre, was published. Through poetic prose, sharp social commentary and self-deprecating gallows humor her novel and English language debut Love the World or Get Killed Trying (2024) dives into the mind of Alvina, a trans woman on the eve of turning 30. The reader follows her journey through the wilderness of Iceland and city boulevards of Berlin and Paris as she probes questions of eternity, sexuality, longing, death, love, and how hard it is to remain soft when you’re a ceaseless target of straight men’s secret lust and open disgust.