Rauna Paadar-Leivo

1942 -

Finland

Rauna Paadar-Leivo is Sami and lives in Inari in northern Finland. She was first published at a mature age and like many other Sami authors more or less taught herself to write in the Sami language. At school she learned only Finnish.

She is primarily known as an author of children’s books, and her first children’s book Mo gidda boahtá Sápmái, 1988, is a modern edition of the mythological ideas of the Sami culture. Her adult novel Goalsenjárga, 1994, is about a northern Sami family’s existence during the time of the evacuation in Finland at the end of World War II.

Additions by the editorial team 2011:

The above biography was first published in 1998. Since then, Rauna Paadar-Leivo has published the book Vuoi dan Karenina, 2000.