Professor of Russian at the Åbo Akademi University and associate professor of Slavic languages at Stockholm University. Received a PhD in 1979 for a dissertation on Russian modernist poet Velimir Chlebnikov. She has written about the prose of Zamyatin and Babel (the skaz-problem) and the poetry of Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova. Is particularly interested in Russian folklore and the recasting of folk culture in the literature.

Translations from Russian (since 1977, especially Akhmatova and Tolstoy) and Serbian (since 1985).

Her translation awards in Sweden include: 1988 from Samfundet De Nio (the literary society “The Nine” – 9 distinguished poets, writers, translators); 1995 from the Foundation Natur och Kultur, the Swedish Academy. In 2026 she receives the Elsa Thulin-Prize from Swedish Translators' Section in the Swedish Writers' Union.