Gungerd Wikholm

1954 -

Finland

Gungerd Wikholm grew up in the country. She is a journalist and lives in Karis. When her debut work Torplandet came out in 1982, she was received by the critics as an acclaimed poet who had more in common with, for example, Tua Forsström than with the Swedish poets of the same generation, who were more influenced by a linguistic philosophy school orientation. In five collections, including Anhalter, svarta och röda, 1990, and Ur vattnets arkiv, 1993, she has developed a sensitive language for the complex relationship between the frighteningly or attractively big world and the small and vulnerable, often represented by the family.

Nature is an important motif for Wikholm, and her poems are characterised by social awareness, keen-sighted observations about the environment, and unsentimental sympathy. Aria (P), 1987, contains her more open, airy poems. In Stora dagen, lilla natten (P), 1995, the mood, and partly also the style, are gradually becoming more compressed. In 1999, she published Brokadstaden.