First Helsinki Lit 2025 guests announced – spring festival with Andrev Walden, Olga Ravn and Olivia Laing

Helsinki Lit, the translation literature festival held that will take place at the Savoy Theatre in Helsinki on 16-17 May 2025, has announced its first guests. The festival will be attended by Swedish journalist and author Andrev Walden, Danish writer and poet Olga Ravn, and British author and art critic Olivia Laing. Helsinki Lit 2025 will be hosted by actor Alma Pöysti.

Andrev Walden’s first novel, Jävlä Karlar (Bloody Men), published in Sweden in 2023, has captivated readers and critics alike in his home country and the other Nordic countries and conquered the top spots on the sales lists. Walden’s novel also won Sweden’s most appreciated August Prize on literature.

Olga Ravn is a Danish writer and poet praised by critics. In addition to books, she writes literary critiques for several Danish media and directs a feminist performance group as well as the writer school Hekseskolen. Of Ravn’s works, the following have been published in Finnish: The Employees, 21st century workplace novel (2022), that was nominated for the International Booker Prize, as well as My Work (2024). Her latest novel Voksbarnet will be published in Finnish in April 2025.

Olivia Laing is an English author and art critic who has received praising reviews. She has published seven works, of which the Lonely City, which was published in Finnish last autumn, is her third and breakthrough work. The novel was published in English in 2016 and has been translated into 17 languages so far. Laing writes about art and culture for the Guardian, the New York Times and the Financial Times, among others.

The Helsinki Lit Translation Literature Festival will be held in the spring for the 11th time. The next international guest writers and their Finnish interviewers will be announced on Valentine’s Day on Friday 14 February 2025.

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