Eino Leino was a Finnish poet and journalist who is considered one of the pioneers of Finnish poetry and a national poet of Finland. His poems combine modern and Finnish folk elements. Much of his work is in the style of the Kalevala and folk songs in general. Nature, love, and despair are frequent themes in Leino's work. He is beloved and widely read in Finland today.
Ali Ahmad Said Esber, also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis, is a Syrian poet, essayist and translator. Maya Jaggi, writing for The Guardian stated "He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the 20th century, "exerting a seismic influence" on Arabic poetry comparable to T.S. Eliot's in the anglophone world."
Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times.
Dušan Simić, known as Charles Simic, was a Serbian American poet and co-poetry editor of the Paris Review. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for The World Doesn't End and was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Selected Poems, 1963–1983 and in 1987 for Unending Blues. He was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2007.
Anselm Paul Alexis Hollo was a Finnish poet and translator. He lived in the United States from 1967 until his death in January 2013.
Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.
Haim Gouri was an Israeli poet, novelist, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. Widely regarded as one of the country's greatest poets, he was awarded the Israel Prize for poetry in 1988, as well as being the recipient of several other prizes of national distinction.
Pentti Saarikoski was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 1960s and 1970s. His body of work comprises poetry and translations, among them such classics as Homer's Odyssey and James Joyce's Ulysses.
Nathan Zach was an Israeli poet. Widely regarded as one of the preeminent poets in the country's history, he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1995 for poetry. He was also the recipient of other national and international awards. Zach was a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of Haifa.
Meir Wieseltier was an Israeli poet and translator.
Rolf Jacobsen was a Norwegian writer.
Finnish literature refers to literature written in Finland. During the European early Middle Ages, the earliest text in a Finnic language is the unique thirteenth-century Birch bark letter no. 292 from Novgorod. The text was written in Cyrillic and represented a dialect of Finnic language spoken in Russian Olonets region. The earliest texts in Finland were written in Swedish or Latin during the Finnish Middle Age. Finnish-language literature was slowly developing from the 16th century onwards, after written Finnish was established by the Bishop and Finnish Lutheran reformer Mikael Agricola (1510–1557). He translated the New Testament into Finnish in 1548.
Keith Anthony Bosley was a British poet and translator.
Markku Into was a Finnish poet and one of the main members in Finnish 1960s underground movement of Turku. Markku Into has written collections of poetry, prose and plays. He has also translated into Finnish such American Beat generation writers as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso; also Charles Bukowski. He wrote lyrics for the band Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940. His literary debut was Tuonela Rock of 1971. Markku Into has also received the Eino Leino Prize in 2001.
Leevi Lehto was a Finnish poet, translator, and programmer.
Kjell Westö is a Finnish author and journalist. Westö writes in Swedish. Best known for his epic novels set in Helsinki, he has also written short stories, poetry, essays and newspaper columns.
The Eino Leino Prize is an annual prize award to top writers in Finland since 1956, with particular emphasis on poets.
Tuomas Anhava was a Finnish writer and recipient of the Eino Leino Prize in 1989.
Sirkka Turkka was a Finnish poet and recipient of the Finlandia Prize in 1987 and the Eino Leino Prize in 2000.
Peter Semolič is a Slovene poet and translator. He has published numerous collections of poetry and his poems have been translated into English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish, Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian. He translates from English, French, Serbian and Croatian and also writes radio plays and children's literature.
