MIKI LIUKKONEN: LE CONTOUR D’UNE CLARTÉ
Literary event on 15 January 2026 at 7:30pm
Miki Liukkonen is a shooting star in contemporary world literature. Born in 1989, he produced a body of work that is as dense as it is dizzying — writing that astonishes as much as it captivates. A musician, novelist, and poet, he blazed across his era before passing away in 2023. Influenced as much by the poetry of Rimbaud—whose irreverence and virtuosity he shared—as by the essays of David Foster Wallace or the novels of Johannes Ekholm, Liukkonen wrote texts meant to live long after him.
French-speaking readers have already had a chance to discover part of his work, including O (Castor Astral, 2021), a monstrous, thousand-page novel following a hundred characters over the course of a single week. More recently, French readers were able to enjoy Elisabet (Castor Astral, 2023), a collection of poems that is by turns funny and tragic, in which Liukkonen brings together the grotesque and the sublime, the material and the metaphysical. In his latest work published in French, L’avenir de la littérature (49 pages, 2026), Liukkonen urges us never to underestimate the reader and advocates for literature that is both demanding and welcoming at the same time.
It is only fitting, then, to celebrate the vitality of his work and the richness of his thought. Institut finlandais invites you to discover — or rediscover — the works of Miki Liukkonen on Thursday, 15 January 2026. The evening will include readings from his work, a biographical presentation and critical insights by his translator Sébastien Cagnoli, followed by a conversation led by Pierre Poligone with Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Youness Bousenna, Pihla Hintikka, and Clément Ramos. The evening will conclude with an informal reception to continue the discussion.
This event offers a unique opportunity for writers, editors, translators, artists, and readers to come together and carry forward the creative spark ignited by Miki Liukkonen’s work.
Please note the event will be held in French.
Limited number of seats, booking required → more information to come.
Youness Bousenna is a journalist and writer. He collaborates with Le Monde, Télérama, Arte and Fracas, covering ecology, literature and religion. He is the writer of the novel Les Présences imparfaites (Rivages, 2024) as well as of the essay Albert Camus : l’éternité est ici (Première Partie, 2019).
Sébastien Cagnoli is a translator and poet. A specialist in Finnish literature, he has translated all the works of Miki Liukkonen available in French. A former engineer and researcher in social sciences, he received the Finnish State Award for Foreign Translators in 2025 for the ensemble of his work.
Pihla Hintikka is a Finnish journalist and author who has been living in Paris since 2005. She writes for Helsingin Sanomat, ELLE and Gloria, and also publishes feminist essays in French. Her novels in Finnish explore Parisian life and motherhood, while also offering an intercultural reflection between France and Finland.
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is a novelist. His work explores memory, exile and the power of literature. Having studied in France, he made a name for himself early on with Brotherhood and The Silence of the Choir. In 2021, he won the Goncourt prize for his novel The Most Secret History of Men.
Pierre Poligone is an editor. After co-founding the cultural media Zone Critique, he chose to create his own editorial structure, 49 pages, aiming to offer short texts capable of rekindling the love of reading. L’Avenir de la littérature by Miki Liukkonen is one of the first texts published by 49 pages.
Clément Ramos is the Publication Manager of Castor Astral, a publishing house that promotes hybrid and ambitious literary texts. Notably, they published the French translation of O as well as Elisabet by Miki Liukkonen.