Arto Matti Vihtori Melleri (7 September 1956 in
Lappajärvi
Lappajärvi is a municipality in Finland in Southern Ostrobothnia region. It is from Lappajärvi to Seinäjoki, to Kokkola and to Vaasa. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density ...
– 13 May 2005 in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
) was a Finnish
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and writer. Melleri gained fame with the play, ''Pete Q'', in the 1970s. He studied at the
Theatre Academy of Helsinki between 1976 - 1980. He was granted an artist's Finnish
state pension
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
in 2003.
Melleri was a diverse writer; his output consisted of poetry, collections of short stories, plays, a film script and an opera libretto.
Melleri was an archetype of a Finnish bohemian poet. He was hit by a car in 1998, causing him brain damage which eventually led to his death. Melleri was married to Nadja Pyykkö.
Tahvo Hirvonen made a 2003 documentary film about Arto Melleri, called
Wanderer of a Lonely Star.
References
1956 births
2005 deaths
People from Lappajärvi
Finnish male poets
Writers from South Ostrobothnia
Finlandia Prize winners
Pedestrian road incident deaths
20th-century Finnish poets
20th-century male writers
Road incident deaths in Finland
Neurological disease deaths in Finland
People with traumatic brain injuries
{{Finland-poet-stub