BRIGHT, DUSKY, BRIGHT: ARRESTING COLLECTION OF EEVA-LIISA MANNER'S POETRY PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH

The English publisher Waterloo Press is releasing a new collection of poetry by one of the most significant Finnish modernists, Eeva-Liisa Manner in November. Bright, Dusky, Bright is the publisher's first translated volume.

Eeva-Liisa Manner (1921-1995) was a central figure in Finnish modernism. After her breakthrough collection, This Journey, was published in 1956, Manner went on to publish further ten collections of poetry, as well as prose works, plays for stage and radio, essays, reviews and translations. She was awarded numerous prizes for her work, which has been widely translated.

Bright, Dusky, Bright is an arresting collection of poems by Manner, selected and intricately translated by Dr. Emily Jeremiah (b. 1975). Dr Jeremiah has previously taught at the University of Helsinki and is currently a lecturer in German at the University of London.

Manner's work is spare yet shimmering; it evokes mystery and obscurity by clear and precise means. It is often unnerving - restless, questioning - but also exquisite. Manner's imagery is startlingly fresh and lovely, and her vision is subtly compelling. Three of the translations published here have appeared previously, in Modern Poetry in Translation. One the poems was awarded in the 2008 The Times Stephen Spender poetry translation competition.

"Eeva-Liisa Manner's poems, in Emily Jeremiah's beautifully honed translations, are delicate yet powerful, elusive yet evocative, luminous, mobile, haunting; capturing the fleeting loveliness and desolation of the natural world and of the human condition, they are, in the words of one poem, "fragile bits of meditation", Helen Carr.

The book launch will be held at the Finnish Institute on Wednesday 4th November 2009 at 6.30 pm-9.00 pm.

Places are limited, but if you wish to attend, please contact the Institute at info@finnish-institute.org.uk or +44 (0) 20 7404 3309 to enquire about availability.