Helena Sinervo was born in 1961 in the industrial city of Tampere, Finland. She studied music at the Conservatoire, and earned her living as a piano teacher until she took to literature, and studied literary studies at the universities of Helsinki and Paris. Avaruusruusuja (Space Roses, 2014) and Merveli (Merveli, 2018) are the latest of her eleven books of poems, and a large selection of her poetry (Valitut runot, Selected Poems) came out in 2011. Her poems are translated into 28 languages. The most recent of her three novels, Armonranta (The Grace Shore), was published in 2016. With the first, Runoilijan talossa (In the House of the Poet, 2004) she won the Finlandia Prize for the best novel, the most prestigious literary prize in Finland. She was also awarded the Dancing Bear Award by the Finnish National Broadcasting Company for the best book of poetry with Ihmisen kaltainen (Like a Human Being) in 2001 and Väärän lajin laulut (Songs of the Wrong Species) in 2011. For children, she has published a set of two novels (Patarania 2012, 2013) and a poetry book (2007). She is also a translator having translated works from Yves Bonnefoy, Elizabeth Bishop, Stéphane Mallarmé and many others.