Barbara Sjoholm

I’m a nonfiction writer, novelist, and translator. Much of my focus as a nonfiction writer has been on Scandinavia and the Indigenous Sámi people of the Nordic countries. My latest book is the cultural history, From Lapland to Sápmi: Collecting and Returning Sámi Craft and Culture (2023). I have also written The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland and Sápmi. I translate from Danish (By the Fire: Sami Folktales) and Norwegian (Clearing Out by Helene Uri) and have received awards from the American Scandinavian Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. My essays have appeared in The New York Times, Smithsonian, Slate, and American Scholar, as well as other publications.

Books published before 2002 are written under the name Barbara Wilson.

I live in the Pacific Northwest.