Jyrki KIISKINEN (Finland)

JYRKI KIISKINEN (b. 1963) debuted as a poet in 1989. He has also worked as a journalist, especially in literary magazines. He was the editor-in-chief of Nuori Voima magazine from 1991 to 1994. After that, he continued his career as the editor-in-chief of Books from Finland from 1996 to 2000. Nowadays, he works as a freelance writer in Helsinki.

Jyrki Kiiskinen was one of the ardent poets who created the Living Poets’ Society, and has organized several literary events. He has translated poetry from Swedish, French, English, and Spanish, and has published nine collections of poetry and four novels.

Jyrki Kiiskinen combines a modernist style with an experimental approach in his poetry. Very often, he uses constraints as the starting point of his writing and examines how poetic form and writing methods affect consciousness.

The Finnish National Broadcasting Company awarded his collection As I Live the Dancing Bear poetry prize in 2000 for the best collection of the year. His collections Roundtrip (2006) and Mountain in Front of the Nose (2023) were shortlisted for the Dancing Bear prize. The Wheel of Fortune was shortlisted for the prestigious Einari Vuorela poetry prize in 2011, and the Finnish Arts Council nominated him as Artist Professor for the years 2019–2023.