What does "home" mean for us today? In our hectic and confusing modern world, it often seems like one doesn’t even need to experience natural disasters, wars or other terrible misfortunes to feel displaced and lacking of identity. In season's final episode before the summer break, bestselling Finnish author Merja Mäki discusses the trauma of displacement in her debut novel ⁠Before the Birds⁠, as well as the various notions of home ..read more

How can writing help in the process of remembering? With her debut The Body of Evidence, the winner of the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, Susanna Hast, brought autotheoretical literature to the Finnish literary scene, and posed the question: how to write out the truth in order to regain humanity? In the new Literature from Finland episode, the author discusses autotheoretical narration and literature of remembering ..read more

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 ..read more

What does relying on illusions say about humans as a species? Tune in the newest episode where author J. P. Laitinen discussed the connections between his impressive background in covering climate issues and his award-winning novel Fictional, whose main protagonist argues: illusion is everywhere. An inspiring conversation, ranging from the theory of fictional human to the most dangerous illusions in the world, absurd conspiracy theories and literary crushes ..read more

How do you write something that is indescribable, that is just a feeling? In the newest episode, Finland’s queen of crime and spooky stories, the spectacular Eva Frantz, discusses everything atmospheric from murders in cozy landscapes and writing scary stories for children to very Finnish atmospheres, inspirations such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the hobby of cocktail mixing ..read more

On February 6th, we celebrate the National Sámi Day. Poet, musician and activist Niillas Holmberg releases his novel Halla Helle – the first one in decades focusing on the Sámi community and written by a Sámi person – and discusses growing up as an indigenous boy in the 1990s' Finland, the right to voice indigenous people, the effects of climate change to Arctic communities, as well as his current literary crushes ..read more

Is Finland really the utopia of gender equality? One of the most original and acclaimed new voices in Finland, the author of a scandalous and spectacular novel Katie-Kate and a feminist since she was 10, Anu Kaaja, discusses images of feminists, a modern Finnish woman, and reveals her favourite sex scenes in literature ..read more

Is voice everything nowadays? And what are the particularities of the Finnish literary voice? From authorship and critiques to WWII, to Peter Handke, to writers' complaints and laziness, to literary crushes, to... sex from a woman's perspective – one of the most internationally successful Finnish authors, Selja Ahava, discusses her Runeberg Prize nominee The Woman Who Loved Insects and literary voice ..read more

Do myths have a place in our everyday life? In the second episode of Literature from Finland podcast, wise and witty Juhani Karila, the author of last year's dark horse, novel Fishing for the Little Pike, discusses the cuteness of mythical creatures, the Finnish North and its oddness, as well as his writing – from video games to Dan Brown and Cormac McCarthy ..read more

In the very first episode of Literature from Finland podcast, we discuss literary murders. Are Finns good at writing an exciting murder? J. P. Pulkkinen, the author of the celebrated Vantaa series, discusses the tortured Finn, writers from Dostoyevsky to Patti Smith, various inspirations from The Wire to inspector Maigret and Henning Mankell, and names the necessary elements for the trendiest Finnish crime novel ..read more