CREATIVE WRITING – MARIA MATINMIKKO

In this course, we approach writing through exhilarating prompts: we explore different entry points into writing and begin in the midst of abundance. We read multi-genre excerpts from a diverse range of authors. We engage in observation and note-taking exercises. No prior writing experience is required.
The age of fields and meadows seeps through the ash of the eyes and reaches the work plan in crisis. The night transforms. The vastness of the draft grants infinity, roughness, and particles. The contours of the surface rise like a performance of everything that is. Someone must stare.

Maria Matinmikko is an award-winning poet and prose writer. Her first three books--Valkoinen (White, 2012), Musta (Black, 2013), and Värit (Colors, 2017)—form a literary composition. Kolkka (2019) is a phantasmal, philosophical, and feminist poetry novel. Valohämy – taide, maisema ja maailmanloppu (Twilight Glow – Art, Landscape, and the End of the World, 2023) combines text with Matinmikko’s photography and drawings by visual artist Sami Jalonen. The book won the Eliel Aspelin Prize for Best Art Book of 2023.
Matinmikko’s sixth work, a visual poetry-essay collection SIIS NIIN, suuri ihmetys (SO LIKE, Wonderstruck), will be published in May 2025. Her writing traverses the boundaries of genres, blending poetic, philosophical, and societal thought in various ways. She holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy with a major in Aesthetics from the University of Helsinki.

Photo: Ville Julius Blad