Poetry. Jane Piirto's SAUNAS captures the strength and magic of family and tradition. From the frozen landscapes of her Finnish forebears to the ice-clear rivers and cold fields of Michigan's Upper Pennisula, Jane Piirto paints a personal and extraordinary picture. Piirto uses the Finnish national story, Kalevala, to connect her poems to this world. These deeply moving poems are like chants celebrating what sustains us, reminding us of the wonder and mystery in the everyday. As Jim Daniels says, "Unafraid to rail against political injustice and unafraid to laugh at our own foibles, Piirto takes us many places to show us just where she's from."
Jane Piirto is a native of Ishpeming, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to which all four of her grandparents emigrated from Finland. She is Trustees' Distinguished Professor at Ashland University in Ohio.