Taina Tervonen

Born in Senegal in 1973, Taina Tervonen is a Finnish journalist, filmmaker and author writing in French and currently based in Paris. Self-described as a “teller of true stories”, she is the author of several books of non-fiction that deal with serious social topics. Her work, “The Country of the Disappeared” was the winner of the 2019 Louise Weiss Prize for European Journalism, and her film “Speaking with the Dead” was her first full-length feature documentary and a selection of the Cinéma du Réel festival in 2020. She is the recipient of the Jan Michalski Award in 2022 for this title, originally published as “Les Fossoyeuses” (Editions Marchialy) in 2021, which celebrates a work of excellence by a European writer that concerns human rights. Her most recent work, “Les Otages” will be published by Schaffner Press in 2025.

Author photo by Chloé Vollmer-Lo