Jarkko Tontti is a poet, novelist, essayist and lawyer. He is an Executive Board Member of PEN International and a former president of Finnish PEN. His first poetry collection ‘Vuosikirja’ (Book of Years, 2006) won the Kalevi Jäntti literature prize for young authors, and his poems have been translated into many European languages. He has worked in the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Local Court of Espoo, in the Parliament of Finland and at the University of Helsinki.
“In general, creative writing needs rules and constraints, ways to more or less artificially limit the unlimited options available to the writer.” Jarkko Tontti talks to Camille Ralphs in the latest instalment of our Poet of the Month series.
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“…a yurt would make a lighter home,/ the only real friends are in the wilderness,/ every house a prison…” Poem of the Week (April 28), by Jarkko Tontti. Translated from Finnish by Lola Rogers.
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