Annika Idström (12 November 1947,

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

— 20 September 2011, Helsinki) was a Finnish author, dramaturg, and translator.

Early life and education

Ilse Annika Idström was born to a Swedish-speaking family in Helsinki, and went to school at the private,

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the G ...

''Laguska Skolan'', graduating in 1968. Afterwards, she studied scriptwriting at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (now part of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture), graduating in 1974.

Literary works

Despite being a Swedish-speaking Finn by background, Idström wrote mostly in the

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...

, due to her strong relationship with her Finnish-speaking grandmother. Her debut novel was ''Sinitaivas'' (1980) ( 'Blue Sky'). Idström's breakthrough work is considered to be ''Veljeni Sebastian'' ('My Brother Sebastian') (1985). That, along with another notable novel of hers, ''Kirjeitä Trinidadiin'' (1989) ('Letters to Trinidad'), were nominated for the Finlandia Prize literary award. She wrote five novels, several TV and radio dramas, as well as translating

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and poetry from Danish and Norwegian into Finnish. Often writing in the

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

of a child, Idström's output centred on strong emotions such as hatred and violence, as well as family relations. Her works were unconventional in approach, dealing with dark and difficult themes, and blurring the boundary between internal and external observations.

Non-writing career

In 1976–1977, Idström ran the ' literary association. From 1984 to 1986, she lectured in Finnish language and literature at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. She also worked as a freelance director in the drama department of the Finnish

public broadcaster Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

Yle.

Honours and awards

In 1985, Idström received the Finnish State Literature Prize ('). In 1996, she was awarded the ' medal of the

Order of the Lion of Finland Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Idström, Annika Finnish women writers Finnish dramatists and playwrights Finnish women dramatists and playwrights Finnish translators Swedish-speaking Finns Writers from Helsinki 1947 births 2011 deaths Pro Finlandia Medals of the Order of the Lion of Finland