Mats Linder

(September 11, 1945 –)

Mats Linder (who after his marriage to Karin Dannewitz added her name to his and since then is Mats Dannewitz Linder). He studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and professionally has worked as a translator of both literary and technical texts, as a popular science magazine editor, and as a standardisation expert both in Sweden and internationally at the European Standardisation office in Brussels.

Mats Linder discovered fandom via the fan news in the Swedish prozine Häpna! during his teens, and in 1963 published his first fanzine, Gandal. In 1964 he succeeded John-Henri Holmberg as editor of SF Forum, and turned it into Sweden's at the time best sercon fanzine. Alternating with or in cooperation with his close fan friends Bertil Mårtensson and John-Henri Holmberg he continued to be a major part in publishing the fanzine during the rest of the 1960s; together, the three formed the (in no sense seriously intended) Witterhetssellskapet Din Vän Fandom, publishing a half dozen humorously intended satirical oneshorts. With John-Henri Holmberg, Mats Linder co-chaired tine 1970 and 1972 Swedish sf conventions in Stockholm, called Fancon 70 and Fancon 2. In 1975 he started Summa, his main fanzine, inspired på Richard E. Geis' Psychotic/Science Fiction Review; it saw a total of 20 issues through 1987. In is considered the best serious and critical fanzine published in Sweden.

After a period of minimal activity in fandom, he unexpectedly returned in 2020 with the first of a series of annual publications called Det svenska science fiction-året ("The Swedish sf year"), listing and to some extent commenting on all sf-related publications, films, activities, etc, during each year. So far, volumes coverin 2018, 2019, and 2020 have appeared; those covering 2021 and 2022 are in preparation and expected Real Soon Now.

1969 Swedish SF Academy Award 1983 GoH Nasacon 4, Saltsjöbanden (a Stockholm suburb)