Markku Envall
Humanist of the day

Markku Envall

Markku Envall is a literary scholar and author. In the 1980s he was also a literary critic. So very much ‘a literary man’. The Faculty of Arts in the University of Helsinki was where it all started, and indeed his sole employer until he moved over to writing full time.

Markku Envall

Markku Sakari Envall
Born July 28, 1944, Hämeenlinna.

Bachelor of Arts (Comparative Literature), 1968, Master of Arts, 1971, Licentiate of Philosophy, 1976, Doctor of Philosophy, 1987, University of Helsinki

Author
Acting Assistant (Comparative Literature), University of Helsinki, 1970–1978

Assistant, Finnish Literature, University of Helsinki, 1982–1992

Senior Research Fellow, Academy of Finland, 1991–1994

Awards
Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church Award for Literature, 1987

Finlandia Prize for Fiction, for Samurai nukkuu (‘The Samurai is sleeping’, WSOY 1989), 1990
Annual award for an aphorism collection ( Ja Job antaa anteeksi (‘And Job forgives’, WSOY 2005), 2006

Samuli Paronen prize, 2009

Merit prize, WSOY publishers, 2009

Olga and Vilho Linnamo prize, 2010

Nominee, J. L. Runeberg prize for literature, 2012 ( essay collection Toinen jalka maassa, ‘One foot on the ground’, 2012)

Photo: Pertti Nisonen
Written by Markku Envall and Tero Juutilainen (ed.)
Translated by John Calton

From literary scholar to author

Markku Envall entered the University of Helsinki in the autumn of 1964. His main subject was comparative literature, and he specialised in aesthetics, which was then formed part of the subject. He also took theoretical philosophy. After graduating, he worked as Acting Assistant in Comparative Literature and then moved to…

Read more

My dream

I dream of Finland as a nation peopled by educated individuals, where the level of education is high and where cultural values are respected and supported. This is a road with no end-point, only a direction. In the Finland of my dreams, people read and write a lot of high-quality…

Read more