Representing the best
Finnish authors abroad
Finnish authors abroad
Rakel Liehu (b. 1939) is an award-winning Finnish writer whose work occupies a singular place in contemporary Finnish literature. First and foremost a poet, she has spent decades refining a voice distinguished by its lyrical intensity, formal daring and profound psychological depth.
Her breakthrough novel, Helene, a richly imagined portrait of the painter Helene Schjerfbeck, became a landmark of Finnish literary fiction. Winner of the Runeberg Prize and nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the novel confirmed Liehu’s reputation as one of Finland’s foremost literary stylists. In 2008, she was awarded the State Prize for Literature.
Rakel Liehu has published several poetry collections, novels, plays and essays. Across her oeuvre, Liehu combines a poet’s sensitivity to language with an abiding fascination for art, memory and the mysteries of human creativity.
