Suominen, Oili

Oili Suominen is an award-winning Finnish literary scholar and translator. She was born in Pori, Finland, in 1941 and studied German, English and literature in Turku.
After working as language lecturer she began translating literature from German and Swedish into Finnish in 1970. Since then she has translated more than 100 works. These include seven novels by Siegfried Lenz and 14 literary works by Günter Grass (among them a new translation of the “Tin Drum” in 2009) as well as the Brothers Grimm and Christa Wolf’s novel “Medea” from German and works by Tove Jansson and Kerstin Ekman from Swedish.
She received the Finnish State Prize for translators in 1976, 1980, 1988 and 2003, the Mikael-Agricola Prize in 1981, the J. A. Hollo Prize in 1993, was short-listed for the European Aristeion Prize twice and was awarded the Verdienstkreuz am Bande der Bundesrepublik Deutschland and the Pro-Finlandia-Medal in 1999.

 

 

 

Hollo, Juho A.

Juho August Hollo (January 17, 1885, Laihia - January 22, 1967 Helsinki) was an essayist, critic and one of the most prolific translators into Finnish, translating a range of genres and from several languages, among others authors like Cervantes, Flaubert, Stendahl, Dickens, Swift, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Hamsun and Nietzsche. He himself said in 1953 that he had translated 170 books; some sources list over 300.

He worked as a teacher from 1908 to 1919. In 1920 he became docent at the University of Helsinki, but then spent five years inLeipzig and Vienna. He returned to Helsinki in 1930, and became professor of pedagogics at theUniversity of Helsinki where he worked from 1930 to 1954, from 1951 to 1953 even as chancellor of Yhteiskunnallinen korkeakoulu (Institute of the Social Sciences).

Aho, Juhani

Juhani Aho, originally Johannes Brofeldt, was born in Lapinlahti, Savo, in Eastern Finland in 1861. He died in Helsinki in 1921.

After attending the high school in Kuopio and studying history and literature in Helsinki, he worked as a journalist for various newspapers. Aho became one of the founders of Päivälehti, the predecessor of the biggest newspaper in Finland today, Helsingin Sanomat.

As a writer he was influenced by Ibsen, Tolstoy and Zola, he had his breakthrough with the story Rautatie (The railway) in 1884. His novels like Papin tytär (Elli's Youth, 1885), Yksin (Lonely, 1890), Papin rouva (The Vicar's wife, 1893) and Juha (Severe Blood, 1911, adapted as an opera twice and filmed four times) founded the realist tradition of modern Finnish literature and were part of the so-called Young Finland-movement. His short stories, which appeared under the title Lastuja (Splinters), became extremely popular.

Westerberg, Caj

Born in Porvoo in 1946, he lives on the island of Kökar, Åland.

Westerberg published 15 collections of poetry since 1967. He translated works by e.g. Samuel Beckett, Bo Carpelan, Gunnar Ekelöf, Tua Forsström, Ted Hughes and Tomas Tranströmer.

Prizes: The Finnish State Literatur Award 1970,1986; The Finnish Writer's Union's Prize 1978; The Finnish State Translation Award 1984;  Suuri Suomalainen Kirjakerho Award 1986; The Dancing Bear Award for Translation 1994; Eino Leino Prize 1995; The Great Prize of Finlands Svenska Författarförening 1998; The Fund of Irene and Kalevi Sorsa Translation Prize 2005; Mikael Agricola Award 2007, Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters; The State Pension for Artists 2007.

Saarikoski, Pentti

Pentti Saarikoski was a controversial poet and a translator, who was also known as a bohemian and a heavy drinker. He spent the last eight years of his life in Sweden and died during a trip to Finland. He is buried on the graveyard of the Orthodox monastery of New Valamo in Heinävesi in Eastern Finland.
Saarikoski’s translations include Homer’s Odyssey and James Joyce’s Ulysses. Many of his poems were inspired by rebellious figures and themes from classical literature, which he combined with contemporary observations and situations.
Pentti Saarikoski was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Literature in 1963, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1981 and 1983. His translations won several awards.

Kilpi, Volter

Volter Kilpi (until 1886 Ericsson) was a writer, translator and librarian. Although he worked in Helsinki and Turku he had deep roots in the Kustavi archipelago, an island area in the south-west of the country. From 1924 to 1936 he wrote his trilogy entitled Saaristosarja (The Archipelago Series). The series includes Alastalon salissa (1933, In the Parlour at Alastalo), Pitäjän pienimpiä (1934, The Lesser in the Parish), and Kirkolle (1937, To Church). With this trilogy Kilpi aimed to describe in detail the outer and inner lives of an archipelago community and its inhabitants.

Volter Kilpi was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Literature in 1933 and 1937.