Riitta Jalonen

Riitta Jalonen began her writing career as a newspaper journalist, later working as a correspondent for the Finnish Press Office. An M.Ph graduate of Tampere University, her first novel,“ENKELIYÖT”, (“The Nights of the Angels”) won the Tammi Teenage Literature Award and has also been published in Scandinavia and in Germany. She has since published six novels, one children's storybook and a trilogy of award-winningillustrated children's books with the illustrator KristiinaLouhi. RiittaJalonen's writing is said to "create a strong feeling in its reader, a sense of emotion, like having been somewhere, having experienced something entirely new. A clear sense of feeling is imprinted in the mind of the reader. And often this grows into bittersweet optimism and belief in the light". RiittaJalonen lives with her family in Hämeenlinna in Southern Finland.Make It Up: Creating Teenage Fiction, Sunday, March 7, 11am.