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Editorial: What are little girls made of?

This'n'that
Alive and kicking! The Lahti International Writers' Reunion; Tuva Korsström on new prose by Kreetta Onkeli; Kristina Carlson on Maria Peura's second novel; adopt a book; prize for translation

Kreetta Onkeli
Big-city blues
Extracts from the novel Beige. Eroottinen kesä Helsingissä (Sammakko, 2005), translated by Lola Rogers
Summer in the city should be full of hot nights and excitement, if you are young and single. Not so in this second, tragi-comic novel by Kreetta Onkeli (born 1970): her narrator is a big, shy, inhibited country girl who finds life utterly unerotic

Kirsi Kunnas
Earth, tree, wind
Poems for children (Animal crackers) and poems for adults (Travelling light), translated by Herbert Lomas
Illustrations by Christel Rönns (from Tapahtui Tiitiäisen maassa ['It happened in Tumpkin land'], WSOY, 2004)
Starfish, mosquitoes and bunnies cavort in the masterly rhymes of Kirsi Kunnas (born 1924) that have delighted readers both young and old since the 1950s. Herbert Lomas (also born 1924) works magic in transferring the Kunnas universe into English.
This is the third in a new series of brief portraits of classic Finnish authors. Kirsi Kunnas is introduced by Leena Kirstinä

Maria Peura
Northern exposure
Extracts from the novel Valon reunalla ('At the edge of light', Teos, 2005), translated by David Hackston
A knife-crazy boyfriend, forbidden games and the desire to escape from the boring Dullsville in the north: one would expect the teenager Ristiina end up with serious trouble. But Maria Peura (born 1970) mixes into her narrative surreal comedy and, almost surprisingly, plenty of light

Pia Ingström
Bodywork
The body is fashionably in the focus of the media and the market - and yet in our increasingly virtual or textual world bodily proximity is, paradoxically, absent. Pia Ingström takes a look at this phenomenon and three new books on the body: Den goda röringen ('Good touching', Söderströms) by Merete Mazzarella, Katseen alaiset ('Subjected to the gaze', WSOY) by Elsa Saisio and Parhaat puoleni ('My best sides', Nemo) by Anna-Stina Nykänen

Merja Salo
Shapes, silhouettes & shoots
Fashion changes but photography preserves; the great fantasy of photography is immortalisation. In this article, Professor Merja Salo outlines the history of Finnish fashion photography - in particular, of garments worn hidden from the eye.
The photographs are from her new, extensive work Muodin ikuistajat. Muoti-valokuvaus Suomessa ('Immortalising fashion. Fashion photography in Finland'; graphic design by Minna Luoma. Helsinki: Taideteollinen korkeakoulu [University of Arts and Design], 2005)

Outi Lauhakangas
Words to the wise
Social psychologist and proverbs scholar Outi Lauhakangas explores the historical meaning of proverbs - and their constant reinvention for modern times

Harri Haanpää
Daydreams of an editor
How is big small too? Harri Haanpää, an editor at WSOY, ponders the pros and cons of work in Finland's largest publishing company. This is the third article in a series in which Finnish publishers write about their work and mission

Reviews

Satu Kyösola
Bigger than life
Peter von Bagh: Suomalaisen elokuvan uusi kultainen kirja [The new golden book of Finnish film]

Marja-Riitta Norri
For the trees
Arkkitehtuuria puusta. From Wood to Architecture. Toim. [Ed.by] Maija Kasvio, Roy Mänttäri

Mikko Lehtonen
Now you know your abc
Professor Mikko Lehtonen takes a look at figures, facts and fiction in Finland

Statistics

New translations

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Jukka Parkkinen
Clichés from the north
The writer Jukka Parkkinen has a place of his own in the far north; the landscape - both mental and physical - contain elements which Finns consider cliché-ridden, he thinks, but which to foreign visitors seem exotic. Bears, white nights, silence... Jukka Parkkinen (born 1948) has written novels, short stories, radio, theatre and television scripts for children and young people