Residency artists and researchers Literature Aki Salmela poet and translator Aki Salmela is a poet and translator from Helsinki. He has published four collections of poetry, the most of which is Yhtä ja Samaa (One and the Same) published in August 2009. Amongst the works he has translated into Finnish are selected poems by John Ashbery and Ron Padgett. Salmela received the Kalevi Jäntti prize for his first poetry collection Sanomattomia lehtiä (Newsless Papers), and the Tanssiva karhu (Dancing Bear) award for his collection Tyhjyyden ympärillä (Surrounding Emptiness). ‘During my stay I worked on my fourth collection of poems and on a number of translations, including some short stories by Donald Barthelme. During the wintertime peace of the Saari Residence I also read quite a stack of books, which until then were mounting up in a corner just waiting for the right time to come along’. Aki Salmela worked at the Saari Residence during November and December 2008.