Clik here to view.
Archives open!
Illustration: Hannu Konttinen For 41 years, from 1967 to 2008, Books from Finland was a printed journal. In 1976, after a decade of existence as not much more than a pamphlet, it began to expand: with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It’s four o’clock and the dog is puzzled
Cover image: ‘Autumn reflections’ by author and painter Saara Tikka Apart from writing poetry for forty years, Sirkka Turkka has worked as a stable master and as a librarian – and she is a wizard in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cool, not ice-cool
Getting ready: book fair scenery, 2013. Photo: FILI The Finnish book world is preparing for the big event of ‘F14’: Finland will appear as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October next...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A family affair
Six Finnish poets, edited by Teemu Manninen – a poet himself – is the tenth volume in a series of bilingual anthologies bringing contemporary poetry from around Europe to English-language readers. One...
View ArticlePotentially translatable
The daily paper Aamulehti, published in Tampere, and the bookshop Tulenkantajat (‘The torch-bearers’), in the same city, founded in 2013 a prize called Tulenkantajat* for a Finnish-language writer...
View ArticleBreadcrumbs and elephants
In this series, Finnish authors ponder the pros and cons of their profession. Alexandra Salmela operates in two languages, her native Slovakian and Finnish, which has become her literary language....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Dancing Bear Poetry Prize 2014
Juha Kulmala. Photo: Kajaanin runoviikko, 2014 The Dancing Bear Poetry Prize (Tanssiva karhu -palkinto), founded by Yleisradio, the Finnish Broadcasting Company and worth €3,500, is awarded annually to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finland, cool! The Frankfurt Book Fair 8–12 October
Finnland. Cool. pavilion in Frankfurt, designed by Natalia Baczynska Kimberley, Nina Kosonen and Matti Mikkilä from Aalto University It starts next week: Finland is Guest of Honour at the Book Fair in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Translation prize to Angela Plöger
Angela Plöger, Frankfurt Book Fair, 8 October. Photo: Katja Maria Nyman The 40th Finnish State Prize for the Translation of Finnish Literature of 2014 – worth €15,000 – was awarded to the German...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A long list of good novels
The longlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2015 has been announced and, among the 142 translated novels – from 39 countries and 16 original languages – are two from Finland. Mr...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Encounters with a language
Mistranslation: illustration by Sminthopsis84/Wikimedia Mother tongue: not Finnish. How do people become interested enough in the Finnish language in order to become translators? In the olden days some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Not a world language, and yet….
The editors (Hildi Hawkins and Soila Lehtonen) at the screen: we begun publishing material on our website in 1998. Photo: Jorma Hinkka, 2001 Longevity may not generally be a virtue of literary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why translate?
Down by the sea: Herbert Lomas in Aldeburgh. – Photo: Soila Lehtonen ‘People do not read translations to encourage minor literatures but to rediscover themselves in new imaginative adventures‚’ says...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reasons to be cheerful
Photo: Vipul Mathur / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Translation, as the German philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin argued, is an art form. Amid all the conventional doom ‘n’ gloom about literary translation, then...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For your eyes only
Photo: Steven Guzzardi / CC BY-ND 2.0 Imagine this: you’re a true bibiophile, with a passion for foreign literature (not too hard a challenge, surely, for readers of Books from Finland,…). You adore...
View Article
