Elin Anna Labba

About

Elin Anna Labba is a Sámi writer and journalist from northern Sweden. Her work focuses on Sámi history, cultural identity, and the experiences of Indigenous communities affected by displacement and colonial policies. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as an editor for Sámi magazines and later served as director of Tjállegoahte, the Sámi Writers’ Centre, which supports and promotes Sámi literature. Labba gained widespread recognition with her first book, The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi (2020). Drawing on archival research and personal accounts, the nonfiction work documents the forced relocation of Sámi communities and won Sweden’s prestigious August Prize for Best Nonfiction in 2020. In 2024, Labba received an honorary doctorate from Luleå University of Technology in recognition of her contributions to literature and public discourse. Her debut novel, The Home of the Drowned, was originally published in Swedish in 2024 and received the Norrland Literature Prize in 2025. Through both nonfiction and fiction, Labba brings overlooked Sámi histories to a wider audience, exploring the relationships between land, cultural memory, and the right to determine one’s own future.