Published in 1988, ‘Jär’ is a Swedish language poetry collection by Finnish writer Gösta Ågren that was awarded the ‘Finlandia Prize‘ in 1988. Jär is the first collection in the autobiographical ‘Jär trilogy’ consisting of the collections ‘Jär’ (1988), ‘Städren’ (1990) and ‘Hid’ (1992). Sven Gösta Ågren (1936 – 2020) was a Finland-Swedish author who wrote his works in Swedish: he praised the ‘Gospel of Mark’ for its literary values and was known for his left-wing sympathies, which can be seen in his autobiographical work concerning the rural “proletariat.” He published poems, essays and biographies: in his poems, Ågren often referred to the region he was born in, Ostrobothnia, on the west coast of Finland. In the first part of the acclaimed ‘Jär trilogy’, Ågren focuses on childhood, the home village and different generations that lived in the area. In the two latter parts, an educational journey and a journey out into the world are depicted as well as a return home. For the poem ‘Jär’, Ågren also received the Carl-Emil Englund Prize in 1989: according to the award’s justification, “Ågren creates a dense and visible poem, filled with temperament and wisdom” using paradox as a tool. With Jär, Ågren also reached a really large readership for the first time: the collection of poems was printed in a total of over 10000 copies in both Swedish and Finnish, and thanks to translations into English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch and the other Nordic languages, Ågren also reached far beyond the borders of his own country. Over the years, Gösta Ågren has also been awarded the ‘Tollanderska prize’ in 1986, the ‘Dan Andersson prize’ in 1995, the ‘Vasa county art prize’ in 1997, the ‘Choraeus prize’ in 2001 and the ‘Pro Finlandia medal’ in 2006. In 2011, Gösta Ågren’s poetry collection ‘I det gehole’ was nominated for the ‘Nordic Council literature prize‘. In the same year, Ågren was awarded the Swedish Academy‘s Finland Prize for significant contributions to Finland’s Swedish-language cultural life.
