LONG VERSION
I was born 1965 in Nyköping, Sweden. I grew up in a safe middle class town where you were supposed to be like everybody else. A dream about something else didn’t exist since nothing outside was real. My way to writing went from letters to diary to poetry to prose. And reading of course. The books were my friends. They confided in me and I confided in them. I took a long time before I could even imagine myself being a writer.
When I was nineteen I moved to Stockholm, the city of possibilities. Nothing much happened. I thought about becoming a fashion designer but wasn’t interested in fashion. I thought about becoming an actress but hated the idea of depending on my exterior. I ended up at the University of Stockholm while writing poems. And writing poems. And more poems.
Puh-leeeze, take me to the short version.
At last I got published in a couple of literary magazines (90-TAL and Horisont). After that it was another big chunk of time until my first book appeared. Language had to be threshed, mind had to be threshed. Concepts had to disappear. Things had to break. Things broke. There was a book. "And The Ugly Angel fell", 1997.
I remember the first time I met my then publisher, Per Gedin, a seasoned, good old-fashioned publisher. As I locked my bike to a lamp-post on Tysta Gatan (Silent Street) the church bells from a nearby church went off dark and powerfully into the silence, much like Mr. Gedin’s voice when he spoke to me: "This moment you will never forget". He was, of course, right.
About the same time as " And The Ugly Angel Fell" appeared in the bookstores, I moved to New York. I walked all over the city, went to cafÈs and spend a lot of time writing. I also found Mudfish, a Tribeca based magazine for literature and art where I started to work as an editor. Stories in English developed in my mind and soon I had short stories and several photos published in Mudfish.
Somewhere there in the middle of everything the children started coming. When my second book "Delusions" came out my second child was due in two weeks. Busy with family life, I continued writing as best I could. Then we moved to Brooklyn.
Ah, Brooklyn. I’ve never felt so much at home as I did in Brooklyn. Not even in Sweden. I think it is because everything is blended together in Brooklyn. There are so many different types of people. Poor, rich, white, black, mixed, Muslims, Jews, lawyers, artists, doctors, psychologists, nannies, lesbian mothers, militant vegans, yuppies, buppies and what have you. You just can’t help fitting in.
We stayed seven years in New York before we moved to Kingston, Jamaica. It may seem exotic, but for us it was a natural step since my husband was born here on this violently beautiful but slightly depressed island. I water my plants, grow children and books. I meditate and practice yoga daily. After many years of practice I see students, including those who can’t afford or don’t have time or don’t even know what yoga is.
If you understand the moment life is complete. I am here. Tomorrow I don’t know anything about. Yesterday doesn’t exist.
charlotte@charlottebrady.com
Charlotte Brady was born 1965 in Nyköping, Sweden. Her first book, "And the Ugly Angel Fell", was published 1997 and was followed in 2000 by her second book of poems, "Delusions". Her first novel will be published in the spring of 2006. She is also writing plays.
Between 1997 and 2004, Brady lived in New York where she worked as an editor at Mudfish, a Tribeca based magazine for literature and art. Her poems, stories and photographs have appeared in Mudfish, several Swedish magazines and The Jamaica Observer.
In 2005 one of her stories was nominated for The Jamaica Observer Literary Award.
Charlotte Brady now lives in Jamaica with her husband and their two children. She is also a devoted photographer and yoga teacher.
