Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish writer and playwright. Oksanen has published five novels, of which Purge has gained the widest recognition. She has received several international and domestic awards for her literary work. Her work has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than two million copies. She was born in Finland, to a Finnish father and Estonian mother.
Early years and education
Sofi-Elina Oksanen was born and raised in Jyväskylä in Central Finland. Her father is a Finnish electrician, her mother an Estonian engineer who grew up in Estonia during the Soviet period and emigrated to Finland in the 1970s. Oksanen studied literature at the University of Jyväskylä and University of Helsinki and later drama at the Finnish Theatre Academy in Helsinki. Oksanen is actively involved in public debate in Finland and comments on current issues in her columns and various talk shows. She is bisexual and has suffered from eating disorders. In 2009 she received an award from the organizers of Helsinki Pride for her activism on behalf of LGBT people in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.
Career
Oksanen's first play Puhdistus was staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007. From out of the play grew Oksanen's third novel Puhdistus. It ranked number 1 on the bestseller list for fiction in Finland when it was published and has received numerous awards, both in Finland and abroad. The play Purge had its American première at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, in New York City, on February 10, 2011. The text was translated by Eva Buchwald and the production directed by Zishan Ugurlu. From October 2011, the play was produced in 11 countries, with productions in Norway, France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Lithuania, Germany and Hungary. It premiered in London at the Arcola Theatre from 22 February - 24 March with a new production directed by Elgiva Field. The novel has been adapted into a film – see Purge – directed by Antti Jokinen, selected as the Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. Purge was adapted into an opera, composed by Jüri Reinvere, and it premiered at Finnish National Opera in 2012. In 2012, Oksanen published a map of Soviet Gulag prison camps, drawn by Niilo Koljonen, in the National Audiovisual Archive. Her fourth novel Kun kyyhkyset katosivat was published in Finland August 31, 2012 and it was the most sold Finnish novel of the year. The title refers to German soldiers catching and eating all the pigeons in Tallinn during the German occupation of Estonia. The book was translated into English by Lola Rogers: When the Doves Disappeared: A novel. Oksanen has written a libretto for Kaija Saariaho´s opera. The world premiere is in 2020 at Royal Opera House, Coven Garden, in London. Oksanen has also written numerous articles published in international newspapers. The topics often are related to freedom of speech, women's rights, Russian politics, information war, immigration and Finlandization. In 2014 Die Welt published her article about information war from the point of view of Eastern European countries. Her novel, Norma, translated by Owen Witesman, was published by W W Norton in September 2017.
