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Editorial: Home, sweet town

This'n'that
On the day of Rockoning: winning the Eurovision Song Contest; Finland reads foreign; Johanna Venho on her own poems; Anselm Hollo on new prose by Paavo Haavikko; literary prizes

Johanna Venho
Mother-days
Poems from Yhtä juhlaa ('It's all a big celebration', WSOY, 2006), translated by Herbert Lomas
In her third collection, Johanna Venho (born 1971) skis through snowy forests, ladles porridge onto the plates and navigates a mother's thoughts: a woman's work is never done, but all the same, for her, the greatest satisfaction lies in everyday life

Anna-Leena Nissilä
Male parole
In his first collection of short stories, entitled Hommes, Hannu Luntiala (born 1952) delves into the lives of 16 men and explores ways of using language, not always his own. Anna-Leena Nissilä discusses the fun of it with the writer

Hannu Luntiala
Nature's not my thing
A short story from Hommes (Tammi, 2006), translated by David Hackston
Not every Finn is a nature boy or girl; some of us may feel awkward among the birds and the trees

Paavo Haavikko
On becoming a forest
Extracts from Ei, siis kyllä ('No. That's to say, yes', WSOY, 2006), translated by Anselm Hollo
For Paavo Haavikko (born 1931), trees have always featured as noble creatures — whereas men and their politics provoke a rich vein of sarcasm on subjects such as Finland becoming 'an Americay', 'a land of serials'; on alliances (such as NATO); and on war

Juha Virkkunen
Walking through a picture
Joel Pettersson (1892—1937) writes like a film director, imbuing the most ordinary things with extraordinary meaning. A chicken farmer and a painter living on the Åland islands, Pettersson also wrote some recently rediscovered stories, full of vivid colours and animated objects. Introduction by Juha Virkkunen

Joel Pettersson
Landscape
The short story 'Landskap' ('Landscape', 1919, translated by Silvester Mazzarella) takes the form of notes in which the writer paints detailed and amusing verbal pictures of the rural life.
This is the fifth part in a series of brief portraits of classic Finnish authors

Michel Ekman
A city of images
Memories and photographs: Bo Carpelan wrote poems for Pentti Sammallahti's photographs of buildings, nature and citizens — both human and canine — of Helsinki. The literary scholar Michel Ekman takes a look at his home town through these words and pictures published in Staden. Kaupunki. La Ville. The city. Dikter och bilder från Helsingfors ('Poems and pictures from Helsinki', Opus, 2006).

Peter von Bagh
Lights and shadows
Extracts from Aki Kaurismäki (WSOY, 2006), translated by Owen Witesman
Peter von Bagh, an unrelenting cinephile, went to interview the filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, now living partly in Portugal. In these extracts the two filmoholics discuss filmmaking, art and life. Introduction by Soila Lehtonen

Reviews

Antti Häkkinen
From gypsies to Roma
Panu Pulma: Suljetut ovet. Pohjoismainen romanipolitiikka 1500-luvulta EU-aikaan [Closed doors. Nordic Romani policy from the 16th century to the age of the European Union]

Kaisa Neimala
The weaker sex?
Suomen naisen vuosisadat 1—4 [The Finnish woman's centuries 1-4].
Päätoim. [Editor-in-chief] Kaari Utrio

New translations

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Martti Weckroth
My favourite thing
In this series guest writers discuss Finnish things they adore. In this second article of the series Martti Weckroth, a graphic designer, recalls a tool — both ancient and modern — that he, at an early age, reluctantly learnt how to wield: the axe