Arja Kajermo is a cartoonist, born in Finland, raised in Sweden, currently residing in Ireland. Kajermo was born in

Kiuruvesi Kiuruvesi is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland located in the Northern Savonia regions of Finland, region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is wa ...

Northern Savonia North Savo (or Northern Savonia; fi, Pohjois-Savo; sv, Norra Savolax) is a region in eastern Finland. It borders the regions of South Savo, Central Finland, North Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, and North Karelia. Kuopio is the largest city in the regi ...

, where her family had a small farm. They moved to Stockholm in 1955 when she was six years old. Kajermo moved to Dublin originally as an

au pair An au pair (; plural: au pairs) is a helper from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a monet ...

in the 1970s. Kajermo started working as a cartoonist for the magazine '' In Dublin''. She drew a

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days," since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is h ...

ly strip for ''In Dublin'' for ten years. Her first book of cartoons ''The Dirty Dublin Strip Cartoons'' (Poolbeg Press) was based on these strips. She contributed cartoons to the feminist publisher Attic Press and occasionally to ''The Sunday Press'' (now gone), ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', '' Image magazine'', ''

Magill ''Magill'' was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. ''Magill'' specialised in investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann (who wrote its anonymous ' ...

'' and others. Her strip ''Dublin Four'' ran in the ''

Sunday Tribune The ''Sunday Tribune'' was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tab ...

''. She also draws the strip '' Tuula'' in the Sunday edition of Swedish daily newspaper ''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ''Da ...

''. The ''Tuula'' strip was turned into a book, ''En pillig sol i Särholmen'' (Nisses Böcker 2005). It is a light-hearted look at daily life in a suburb south of Stockholm. A second book, ''Tuula-underbar, underbetald undersköterska'' (Nisses Böcker 2008), expanded the subject matter to expectations, class, culture, cliché and gender. Some of the books illustrated by Arja Kajermo include the children's book ''Address Vintergatan'' (Almqvist&Wiksell, 2003), ''Hämta kraft'' (UR, 2008) by Annamaria Dahlöf about stress in the workplace, and ''Get Through'' (Royal Society of Medicine Press, 2008) by Bruno Rushforth and Val Wass, dealing with MRCGP Clinical Skills Assessment. Arja Kajermo's debut novel ''The Iron Age'' was published by

Tramp Press Tramp Press is a publishing company founded in Dublin in 2014 by Lisa Coen and Sarah Davis-Goff. It is an independent publisher that specialises in Irish fiction. The company is named after John Millington Synge's tramp, a reference to the bold ...

2017. The novel with illustrations throughout by Susanna Kajermo Törner grew out of a story shortlisted for the Davy Byrne's Short Story Award 2014. It is partly based on Kajermo's own childhood in post-war Finland and Sweden. ''The Iron Age'' was longlisted for the

Republic of Consciousness Prize The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses is an annual British literary prize founded by the author Neil Griffiths. It rewards fiction published by UK and Irish small presses, defined as those with fewer than five full-time employees ...

and was one of 20 on the Walter Scott Prize recommended reads (2018)

References

External links

* http://www.tuula.se/ Finnish comics artists Finnish female comics artists Finnish comic strip cartoonists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Finnish emigrants to Sweden Finnish expatriates in Ireland {{cartoonist-stub