Per Straarup Søndergaard

Per Straarup Søndergaard is a Danish author, the owner and managing director of Straarup & Co. The publisher prints mostly easy-to-read books for children and non-fiction books for professionals working with the same target group.

As an author Søndergaard has about 200 books to his credit. In recent years, he has published a series of books on the behavior of young people, focusing on such topics as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, OCD, etc.

He also owns Generator, a company that offers courses and conferences on educational and psychological topics, as well as customized training programs in dialogue with clients.

Per Straarup Søndergaard was born in Tørring, in central Jutland. A few years later, he and his family moved fifteen kilometers away to Tiregod, where he lived before moving to Aarhus at 19.

In Aarhus Søndergaard began his "studies" at Handelshøjskolen. It was only a few months before he was expelled. This gave him time to write the novel he was planning.

"The love of my life had left me, and I was sure that if I wrote a novel and became rich and famous, she would return to her weeping knees. The novel was never finished and she never came back, but I found my profession. I wanted to be a writer," says Søndergaard.

His first poem was published in an HK anthology in 1982. That same year he enrolled at the teacher's college in Aarhus. He rediscovered his childhood love of children's books and began writing them himself. His first children's book, Sigurd and Little Benny was published in 1986. Several more children's books followed, after which his writing became dominated by non-fiction and discussion books. He also wrote one collection of short stories.

Photo credit: straarupogco.dk