Mikaela Nyman

Mikaela Nyman (born 1966) is a Finnish-New Zealand novelist, poet, journalist and editor. After an early career in journalism and non-fiction work, she published her first poetry collection (in Swedish) in 2019 and her first novel (in English) in 2020. The former resulted in her being nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Her work has been published in various anthologies and journals, and she was the co-editor of the first anthology of Vanuatu women's writing.

Life and career Born in Åland in Finland in 1966, Nyman's first language was Swedish. She is a granddaughter of Finnish writer . In 2006 she published the non-fiction book Democratizing Indonesia: The challenges of civil society in the era of reformasi.

In 2019, her first poetry collection, När vändkrets läggs mot vändkrets, dealing with the death of her sister and her challenges moving between two cultures, was published in Swedish. She was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2020 as a result of this work. Reviewer Steve Walker for Stuff described the novel as "both timely and timeless" and said Nyman "forces us to understand rather than judge". In the same year, she was the visiting artist/writer in residence for Massey University, Palmerston North and Square Edge Community Arts Centre. , she is based in New Plymouth and is the Taranaki regional representative for the New Zealand Society of Authors.

Nyman's first poetry collection written in English, The Anatomy of Sand, was published in 2025.

Selected works Tankar: Hildegard Mangelus liv, Abacus (Swedish, non-fiction, 1995) Democratizing Indonesia: The challenges of civil society in the era of reformasi, NIAS Press (English, non-fiction, 2006) När vändkrets läggs mot vändkrets, (Swedish, poetry collection, 2019) Sado, Victoria University Press (English, novel, 2020) Sista, Stanap Strong, Victoria University Press (English, co-editor of anthology, 2021) The Anatomy of Sand, Te Herenga Waka University Press (English, poetry collection, 2025)