Teacher

Kähkönen Sirpa

In Pentti Saarikoski's poetry, metaphysics is expressed at the interface between everyday life and philosophy, often through irony and social commentary. His poems do not aim for mysticism or religious metaphysics, but rather for reflection on everyday reality and existence. For example, in the work What is really happening? (1962), he discusses the change of time, existence and society, combining observations of spaceflight and socialism with everyday events.

Sirpa Kähkönen (b. 1964) is a Helsinki-based writer specializing in social and historical topics. According to Kähkönen's own words, her passion for writing was first influenced by her grandfather from Savo, who was a good storyteller, and her grandmother, from whose "whispers" she tried as a child to understand everything that was not said out loud at home. Later, the writer was inspired by Minna Canth and Juhani Aho, who were active in her hometown of Kuopio. Other important literary influences have included Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust.

Photo: Laura Malmivaara

Teacher

Hurskainen Antti

"I haven't escaped anything: anxiety, a sense of sin, abnormal desires, terrible morning fatigue..." The 19-year-old Pentti Saarikoski of the Youth Diaries knows that it is not worth dreaming of escaping in the future. Antti Hurskainen approaches Saarikoski's work and personality through the concept of sin. If God is the "thickest fog", does a sinner understand Him most deeply? Hurskainen studies Saarikoski's diaries, a superficial sinful life that thickens into a devotion of penitential phrases.

Antti Hurskainen (b. 1986) is a Helsinki-based essayist and novelist from Lapinlahti. His works deal with Christian, popular cultural and literary themes. The novel Suntio (2023) was a candidate for the Finlandia Prize. Hurskainen favors sparse sentences and black-gray thinking. Her writings have been published in, among others, Image, Long Play, Suomen Kuvalehti and Nuores Voima.

Photo: Laura Malmivaara

Teacher

Teräs Mila

"A good poet / does not make poems / but seeks them out", wrote Pentti Saarikoski. Mila Teräs talks about the possibilities of poetry in children's and young adult literature, both in words and in images. Children's and young adult literature is intended for readers of all ages; it is a strong body of literature that, at its best, can create lifelong experiences.

Mila Teräs (b. 1975) is a writer from Orimattila who has published over 30 works, the majority of which are children's and young adult books. Her works have dealt with, among other things, the pain points and identity of youth and the interaction between generations. Teräs has been awarded, among other things, the Kaarina Helakisa, Punni and Topelius prizes, and her works have also been nominated for the Finlandia Prize.

Photo: Otava

Teacher

Kemppainen Lauri

When Nietzsche wrote in the late 19th century that “God is dead!” he did not mean that people had shot a cannon into the sky and killed some kind of divine being. Nietzsche’s profoundness lay in the fact that he saw the kind of transformation that the continental plates of European thought were going through. Belief in the metaphysical structure of reality was disappearing, and it was not long before the philosopher Emil Cioran stated that the fact that life has no meaning is the only reason to live.

Lauri Kemppainen (b. 1983) discusses the experience of meaning and meaninglessness in the light of religious philosophy. Kemppainen is a priest from Kainuu, a doctor of theology and a rapper. His debut novel, In the Palm of God, combines thriller traditions, a northern mental landscape and major worldview questions.

Photo: Heini-Maari Kemppainen

Teacher

Silveri Sini

Timo K. Mukka, a contemporary, colleague and acquaintance of Pentti Saarikoski, was a multidisciplinary writer and visual artist whose work sparked widespread discussion in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s. Mukka's religious thinking combined nature, sexuality and society. Sini Silveri, who wrote the biography of Timo K. Mukka, introduces Mukka to the meaning of religion and also presents the thoughts of her own colleagues and other contemporary artists on the meaning of religion and spirituality. The focus of the study is on the experiences of anxiety, worry and the search for meaning that strongly define the present.

Sini Silveri (born 1964) is a poet, performance artist and non-fiction writer, whose poetry works Smells of All Scents (Khaos Publishing, 2023) and Titanidisko (2020), which won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, have been published. In addition, he has published a Finnish translation of Kathy Acker's New York City 1979 (Poesiavihkot 2024) and What Does It Feel Like to Be a Pine - The Life of Timo K. Mukan (Gummerus, 2024). For Silver, spirituality is a subtle experience of being outside oneself.

Photo: Marek Sabogal

Teacher

Heikkinen Antti

Antti Heikkinen became interested in Pentti Saarikoski's work and personality in his thirties. It wasn't Saarikoski's texts or the anecdotes about him that sparked his interest. All it took was a piece of information that Saarikoski, a teenager, had spent a wartime evacuee holiday next door to Heikkinen's current home. Since then, Heikkinen has noticed that if everyone has their own, everyone also has their own Saarikoski.

Antti Heikkinen (born 1985) is a journalist and author from Nilsää. His debut novel Pihkatappi won the 2014 Savonia Prize and the Kalevi Jäntti Prize. The non-fiction book Risainen elämä – Juice Leskinen 1950–2006 was a critical and sales success. In addition to his writing, the multi-talented Heikkinen acts, sings and does stand-up gigs. Heikkinen was seen in the lead role in the play Pihkatappi by the Kuopio City Theatre, which premiered in autumn 2015.

Photo: Harri Hinkka/Otava

Teacher

Köykkä Arto

Pentti Saarikoski spoke of a bunker inside him, to which he himself had no access. So his religiosity is ultimately a mystery. It can easily be said that Jesus was his hero and that he felt alienated from the Lutheran Church. God himself, however, remains shrouded in mystery, although something can be surmised. Köykkä's presentation focuses on the last years of Saarikoski's life.

Arto Köykkä (b. 1957) is a doctor of theology living in Pirkkala, who has moved in the middle ground between fiction and theology. He has focused most deeply on the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Pentti Saarikoski's religious language. As a counterbalance to books, he has tried to maintain a connection with everyday matters. Football and working with young people have helped him in this.

Teacher

Wallén Björn

Pentti Saarikoski's colorful life has offered fascinating reading, starting with his youthful diaries. The theme of the presentation - the holy fool - is connected to the author's own positioning on the border between West and East, on the edge of Europe. PS offers an interesting cultural anchor for this geopolitical situation.

Björn Wallén serves as the chairman of the Free Educational Work Association, a fearless defender of education and living culture. His book Syväsivistys (2021) is written in the Grundtvigian historical-poetic style, https://peda.net/yhdistikiset/vst/syvasivistys-verkkojulkaisu In addition, Wallén has written aphorisms and essays, including an essay on Pentti Saarikoski.

Photo: Nina Ahtola