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Editorial: A step into the darkness

This 'n' that
Matti Saurama on Joni Pyysalo's poems; Antti Hynönen on the Lahti International Writers' Reunion; translator's prize; Georg Henrik von Wright in memoriam

Joni Pyysalo
The way to anywhere
Poems from Parittelun jälkeinen selkeys ('Post-coital clarity', WSOY, 2003), translated by Herbert Lomas
In addition to enlightenment Joni Pyysalo (born 1970) also writes about the minutiae of everyday life – bathrooms, lemon balm and love – in his second collection of poems

Jarmo Papinniemi
Keeping the day job
Matti Yrjänä Joensuu (born 1948) is a policeman from Helsinki who writes about a policeman from Helsinki, Timo Harjunpää. In his interview Jarmo Papinniemi investigates what made Joensuu invent criminals and their crimes for the eleventh novel in his Harjunpää series

Matti Yrjänä Joensuu
Notes from underground
Extracts from Harjunpää ja pahan pappi ('Harjunpää and the priest of evil', Otava, 2003), translated by Herbert Lomas
Someone keeps pushing people under metro trains, but the police have no idea who. Someone also lives in the tunnel network, and a madwoman – or is it a man – hands out leaflets extolling the vengeance of God. Is there a connection?

Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse
A level gaze
Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) has become perhaps the most respected Finnish artist – her paintings have recently been sold at international art auctions at very high prices. The art historian Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse takes a look at this extraordinarily gifted artist's solitary life

Rakel Liehu
In the mirror
Extracts from the novel Helene (WSOY, 2003), translated by Hildi Hawkins
The poet and writer Rakel Liehu (born 1944) happened to see one of Helene Schjerfbeck's paintings in an art book, and it took root in her imagination. In her fictional novel Helene, Liehu delves into the life and soul of an artist with exceptional integrity whose best model was found in the mirror

Seppo Heiskanen
Looks for books
The celebrated graphic artist Markko Taina (born 1962) designs book covers for Tammi Publishers.
This is the third profile in a series on book illustrators and designers featured in this year's issues of Books from Finland

Veronica Pimenoff
The cruellest politics
Veronica Pimenoff (born 1949), a medical doctor by profession, explores the world in her fiction: 'the text can be assembled as the challenge of an imaginary world to the world I experience.... Literature always recalls the cruellest politics in that people are its material,' she writes in this essay, the first in a series by writers who reflect on the world through their own writing

Viola Parente-Capková
Inner journeys
For the translator and teacher Viola Parente-Capková (born 1966), the fascination of her job lies in navigating between her native tongue Czech, Finnish and Italian – the language of her husband, who also translates from Finnish – as well as between literature and linguistics

Reviews

Hannu Marttila
The city next door
Jarmo Nironen: Suomalainen Pietari kuvina [The Finnish St Petersburg illustrated]; Anu Seppälä: Jääkukkia keisarinnalle. Alma Pihlin uskomaton elämä [Frost flowers for the Empress. Alma Pihl's fantastic life]; Magnus Londén & Anders Mård & Milena Parland: S:t Petersburg – metropolen bakom hörnet [St Petersburg, a metropolis round the corner]

Soila Lehtonen
Horses of the soul
Hevonen taiteessa, runoudessa, historiassa [The horse in art, poetry, history].
Toim. [Ed by] Ritva Haavikko

Frankfurt Book Fair supplement

Timo Hämäläinen
Little and large
A look at a big publisher – and some small ones

Statistics

New translations

Select bibliography

Letter from Nykarleby
Gösta Ågren in a small town where nothing happens, and finds himself suffering from writer's block – there is simply nothing to write about. But, he muses in the company of two friends, Kronkvist and Snickars, may monotony not be a source of strength?
 
 
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