Literature from Finland

How does one write entertaining historical fiction? Ann-Christin Antell found a way to the hearts of wide readership with her commercial historical romance, the Cotton Mill trilogy. In the new Literature from Finland episode, the author discusses the exciting history of the city of Turku and reaching her audience with writing about times past.

Do authors today still experiment to push boundaries, or simply out of boredom? Throughout their respective careers, writers Laura Lindstedt and Sinikka Vuola have been interested in experimenting with form and language. In 2022, together they published an Oulipo-inspired murder mystery 101 Ways to Kill Your Husband – a piece of sheer joy and fascination for readers, writers and translators. In our new episode, authors discuss literary experiments, possibilities, and... revenge.

Do Finns, a stereotypically shy nation, feel more shame than others? In the new episode, author Antti Rönkä, whose debut novel Off the Ground (2019) encouraged a public discussion in Finland about the mostly unspoken side of young men, discusses shame as a subject in literature, the lure of autofiction, as well as unexpectedly good sides of shamefulness.

Can YA literature help the youth of today cope with their lives? In the newest episode, author Ellen Strömberg discusses the unbearable lightness of the young adults’ world, understanding and handling one’s own feelings, as well as her newest YA novel, We’ll Just Ride Past.

What is the lure of fiction? Marisha Rasi-Koskinen, the author of the Lynchian masterpiece REC, claims that we all tell many stories, and being unreliable is just being human. In this month’s episode, we discussed the unreliable narrators, the ways of telling a story, and the need of today’s human to fictionalise their own life – and sometimes, death.

How can anxious characters enrich our lives? Finlandia-nominated author Marjo Niemi doesn't think angst has to be a gloomy experience. In this month's Literature from Finland episode, we discuss Niemi's lauded novel Hearing, trauma narratives, Finnish methods of coping, and art as a way of finding communication in the world of isolation.

"Children don't read as much anymore" is a statement as old as the world. But do adults themselves take children's literature seriously enough? In the newest episode, Finlandia-winning author Tomi Kontio and the awarded author and illustrator Sanna Pelliccioni tell us more about how children read in Finland, what authors they grew up reading and what makes Finnish children's literature truly exceptional.

In the world where the biggest publishing markets release tens of thousands of new titles every year, does the book have to be something more than just a book? Author Harry Salmenniemi is known in Finland for his playful, sometimes experimental and wildly humorous literary decisions. The new Literature from Finland podcast season begins with Salmenniemi discussing literary stunts, explaining the ideas behind his new short story collection Customer Coral, and revealing a surprising author who never fails to make him laugh.

Are Finns a romantic nation? In this cheerful summer episode, Niina Mero, the author of bestselling romance novel The Death of Romance, defends the case of commercial fiction and discusses everything from stigmas related to the genre to Finnish romance writers, her newest novel and the most romantic books in the history of time.

Piia Leino won the EU Prize for Literature in 2019 for her dystopian novel Heaven – and continued to imagine our near future in her following books. But how accurately Finns imagined their future back in the day? In the recent episode, Leino discusses her new novels Overtime and Zenith, differences between the past and future narratives, as well as a heaven-like, yet fragile life in the happiest country in the world.