Sarasti-Wilenius, Raija

Raija Sarasti-Wilenius is University lecturer in Latin language and Roman literature at the Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki. Her main areas of interest are history of rhetoric, Latin letter writing, Neo-Latin literature and classical tradition.
She is Secretary of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies.

Kahlos, Maijastina

Maijastina Kahlos is an historian and a classicist (University of Helsinki). She works currently as a research fellow in the Centre of Excellence ‘Reason and Religious Recognition’, funded by the Academy of Finland. Her research interests broadly include the late Roman history and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. She is the author of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus: Senatorial Life in Between (AIRF 2002), Debate and Dialogue: Christian and Pagan Cultures, c. 360-430 (Ashgate 2007) and Forbearance and Compulsion: Rhetoric of Tolerance and Intolerance in Late Antiquity (Duckworth 2009).

Pekkanen, Toivo

Toivo Pekkanen, born in Kotka in 1902, died 1957 in Copenhagen, was a Finnish writer.

Pekkanen depicted working-class life in an artistically significant way, including in the book Tehtaan varjossa (In the Shadow of the Factory, 1932), which has been filmed for television. His style is critically clear and humanly warm. One of his best novels is the highly realistic Lapsuuteni (My Childhood, 1953).

He was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1948.

Tuuri, Antti

Antti Tuuri was born in Kauhava, Southern Ostrobothnia, in 1944. He has written prose books, mostly novels, and translated some of the Icelandic sagas.
He received the Nordic Council's Literary Prize in 1985 for Pohjanmaa (Ostrobothnia) and the Finlandia Prize in 1997 for his novel Lakeuden kutsu. 
Many of his novels have been made into films including "Ambush" about the Finnish-Russian Wars in Karelia.

Lönnrot, Elias

Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884) was a professor, doctor, editor, poet and translator who greatly reformed the Finnish language. He was an eager collector of proverbs and riddles, names of plants and odd words. Most of all he is remembered and honored as the creator of Kalevala, which has gained the status of Finnish national epic.
In the spirit of national mythology Lönnrot wandered eleven times in Northern and Eastern Finland and Karelia collecting folk poems. These poems form the ground of the Kalevala. The first edition was published in 1835, and the second, expanded and nowadays the standard version, in 1849. Lönnrot made his dreams come true and created an ancient Finnish heroic prehistory, which still is an important ground for Finnish national identity and inspires researchers and artists.
In 1840 Lönnrot published the Kanteletar, which is called Kalevala’s sisterly work with lyrical poems. It is based on runo singer Mateli Kuivalatar’s songs. Lönnrot’s publications include even Suomalais-Ruotsalainen sanakirja (Finnish-Swedish dictionary, 1880), books and scientific articles on medicin and Flora Fennica (1860).

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.