Jyrki Kiiskinen

Jyrki Kiiskinen (1963) is a Finnish poet, writer, translator and former editor-in-chief of Books from Finland, originally from Helsinki, who made his debut in 1989. He has also worked as a journalist, mainly in literary magazines. He was editor-in-chief of Nuori Voima from 1991-1994, then continued as editor-in-chief of Books from Finland 1996-2000. He currently works as a freelance writer in Helsinki.

Jyrki Kiiskinen was one of the ardent poets who created the Living Poets' Society, and has arranged several literary events. He has translated poetry from Sweedish, French, English and Spanish, has written essays, children books, and has published nine collections of poetry and four novels by now. He combines modernistic style and experimental approach in his poetry. Very often he uses constraints as the starting point of his writing, and examines how poetic form and methods of writing may affect consciousness.

The National Broadcasting Company awarded his collection Kun elän /As I live/ with the the poetry prize Dancing Bear in 2000 for the best collection of the year, and his collections Roundtrip (2006) and The Mountain just in front of the nose (2023) were nominated for the short-list of the Dancing Bear prize. The Wheel of Fortune was on the short list of the most prestigious poetry prize Einari Vuorela in 2011, and The Finnish Arts Council nominated him as Artist Professor for the years 2019-2023.

Together with Jukka Koskelainen, he won the Eino Leino Prize in 1993. They both edited the literary magazine Nuori Voima in the 1990s. His texts have been translated into more than twenty languages.