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Editorial

This'n'that
The limits of literature: Lahti International Writers' Reunion; Soila Lehtonen on Maarit Verronen; Kalevi Wiik and the battle for the Germanic soul; Jarl Hellemann on the brief lives of books; literary prizes; Paavo Rintala in memoriam

Maarit Verronen
Delina
A short story from Löytöretkeilijä ja muita eksyneitä ('The explorer and other lost people', Tammi, 1999)
Boy meets girl in a strange country; twenty years later, the grown-up boy tries to find the girl again. In her short story, Maarit Verronen (born 1965) hints at the girl's identity, refracted through the kaleidoscope of time. On what, her text forces its readers to ask, does that identity most depend - time, place, people, the narrator herself?

Hunger and desire
Poems by Kari Aronpuro, Agneta Enckell, Markus Jääskeläinen and Tomi Kontio, translated by Herbert Lomas and David McDuff
Odes to sheep, surfing the internet, frost-patterns on windows and their cosmic dimensions: Jukka Koskelainen explores the work of four contemporary Finnish poets through the imagery of their latest collections

Leena Krohn
The son of the chimera
A short story from Pereat mundus. Romaani, eräänlainen ('Pereat mundus. A novel, sort of', WSOY, 1998), translated by Hildi Hawkins
Leena Krohn (born 1947) writes both for print and for the internet. In her latest work, Pereat mundus - a 'novel, sort of' - she takes her readers into a world in which one cannot always tell the difference between man and machine. E-mail interview by Maria Säntti

Jukka Mallinen
On the trail of Byzantium
An essay from Toinen Eurooppa/The Other Europe (Musta taide, 1999), a book of photographs by Vesa Oja, translated by Jüri Kokkonen
It is in eastern Europe that 'the enigmatic east meets the cultural west, in brackish cultural waters,' writes Jukka Mallinen. His essay accompanies a collection of photographs by the press photogarpher Vesa Oja, who has spent 20 years travelling in eastern Europe, photographing socialism and capitalism, people and their cities, in peace and war

Kalevi Wiik
Europe's oldest language?
Finnish-related languages were once spoken all over northern Europe, and the Germanic tongues of today still show traces of Finno-Ugric accentation. Professor Kalevi Wiik's controversial theory challenges the established view of the origins of Finnish

Alan Mäkinen
Two dots
Chicago-based Alan Mäkinen has an appointment with a database. Arriving at the future, he discovers that accessibility is all: no place here for the accidents of spelling or geography

Reviews

Jari Tervo
Snow fun!
Suomen hiihto [Skiing in Finland] by Pentti Jussila

Erkki Lyytikäinen
Family circle
Karhunkieli. Pyyhkäisyjä suomalais-ugrilaisten kielten tutkimukseen [The bear's tongue. Notes towards the study of the Finno-Ugric languages] by Johanna Laakso

Jarl Hellemann
Mappa mundi
In the old days book publishing was considered part of the national heritage, says Jarl Hellemann, the former managing director of the Helsinki publishing house of Tammi; now it is becoming more and more international. What are the implications for a minority-language country such as Finland?

Timo Hämäläinen
The meaning of size
Smaller publishers are flourishing in Finland. From tiny companies run by voluntary staff to professional firms with turnovers running into millions of Finnmarks, small publishers are finding their niche markets

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