Hanna Pylväinen

Finlandia Foundation National is pleased to announce Hanna Pylväinen as Lecturer of the Year. She is available to appear at FFN chapters from January through December 2024.

Hanna is the author of The End of Drum-Time, a 2023 finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.

About her story set in the 1851 world of Sámi reindeer herders, religion, beliefs, faith and love, Anthony Marra, New York Timees bestselling author says, “Hanna Pylväinen’s novel of cultural collision in the far north is an extraordinary feat of research and imagination…”

Her acclaimed novel We Sinners (2012) follows the struggles within a large Finnish family raised in a strictly traditional church, as the children choose their individual paths in modern life.

Educated at Mount Holyoke College and the University of Michigan, Hanna has received several fellowships and residences. She lives in Philadelphia and serves on the faculty of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College

Hanna offers six different options for the LOY program, from the approximately one-hour program followed, if desired, by a reception to longer options including a choice of seminars.