Hertell, All emotions allowed

Harri Hertell (b.1985) is a Helsinki-based Finnish poet, DJ, and poetry event producer. He has published seven poetry collections, a non-fiction book about performance poetry, and four spoken word recordings. His first poetry book for children was published in autumn 2022. Hertell was awarded the Uusimaa Art Prize in 2021. He has also founded the Helsinki Poetry Connection collective in 2008. Hertell’s poetry is suffused with both the wonder and confusion of everyday life, which his poems always address with compassion, straightforward honesty, and an eye for the tiniest of details. His perspective touches on themes such as parenthood, mental health, collective ethical conundrums, and Western people’s relationship to nature. Hertell’s poems have been translated into several languages, and he has performed in many European countries. All Emotions Allowed is his first poetry book in English, a selection of translations by fellow Finnish poet and translator Kasper Salonen.*mushrooms rise out of the earthas the asters and mallows bloomthe rowans redas alwaysit’s easy even now to be certainthat together we have the abilityto solve any problem at allwith this amount of love.*”Beautiful, elegiac meditations on fatherhood and masculinity. This is poetry as drops of water, crystal balls of rainfall. Stunning.” – Joelle Taylor”These poems glitter with emotion and thrum with honesty.” – Michael Pedersen