Six female scholars, from Norway, Estonia, and Finland, address the work of remarkable 20th Century female poets in their languages - Unni Langås that of Eldrid Lunden, Sissel Furuseth of Gunvor Hofmo, Tuula Hökkä of Eeva-Liisa Manner, Ele Süvalep of Betti Alver, and Auli Auväärt of Debora Vaarandi, whereas Anna Hollsten writes about Finnish writers of childrens literature.

Against the background of International Modernism, with its various avangardes, and the history and culture of their countries, the scholars chart the dimensions, surprises, points in common as well as differences - the richness, and the other ambivalent voices ("toiset ambivalentit äänet") - of the female poetics in Northern Europe.

The anthology is multi-lingual, one of the essays being is in Norwegian, two in Finnish, one in English, and one in Estonian and English. The authors are specialists in the literature, and above all poetry, in their respective languages. The editor, Tuula Hökkä, Ph.D., is a renown scholar and promoter of Eeva-Liisa Manner's work.