My bagatelles are enigmatic mini novels in the tradition of Borges and Calvino. A bagatelle can also be a short piano piece, a trifle, or a story without a true beginning or end. I began writing them in 2009 on the backs of envelopes, after a particularly stubborn bout of writer’s block. The words just wanted out, I barely understood what I was writing, or who was writing it. It just happened.

In 2009, these envelope texts found their way online through a blog, which later became an Instagram account (2015–2020), GPS poetry (2015), an interactive website (2016), and an exhibition (2019). A selection of the best bagatelles from those years can be found here (longer), here (shorter), and on the website Bagatellerna.se. All in Swedish, though.

Since 2025, The Bagatelles has existed primarily as an English-language newsletter, sent at irregular intervals to your inbox. In a short time, it has reached subscribers in more than 110 countries. You are welcome to join my journey by subscribing.

In 2026, The Bagatelles won the Best Creative Newsletter award at the Inbox Awards. Read the jury’s citation here. The project has also been featured in Compact Magazine, in an article exploring the revival of serial fiction and my experiments with reader-driven storytelling.

Some dispatches to start with:

1. Listen to a secret pianist: The second chance at a first
2. Real stories from everyday life: The Art of the Diary
3. The list for living: 93 notes to myself