Tomas Tranströmer (15 April 1931 – 26 March 2015) was one of Sweden’s leading poets of his generation. He studied poetry and psychology at Stockholm University, graduating in 1956. His collections of poetry include “Windows of Stone” (1972) and “The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems” (2006, 2011). Tranströmer’s poetry, building on Modernism, Expressionism, and Surrealism, contains powerful imagery concerned with issues of fragmentation and isolation. It has also gained worldwide acclaim and exposure due to its accessibility, even in translation. In 2011 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Committee stated that Tranströmer’s work received the prize “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality."

Tomas Tranströmer has also had a profound impact on music. Many musicians, such as Jan Garbarek and Ulf Grahn, have worked with his poems. Throughout his life, he played piano and after his stroke, which paralyzed the right side of his body, he taught himself to play only with his left hand. He often said that the playing was a way for him to continue living after the stroke.