Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish-Estonian novelist and playwright. Purge was her first novel to appear in English. She has received numerous prizes for her work, including the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, the Prix Femina, the Budapest Grand Prize, the European Book Prize, and the Nordic Council Literature Prize. She lives in Helsinki.
Owen F. Witesman is a professional literary translator with a master's in Finnish and Estonian area studies and a PhD in public affairs from Indiana University.He currently lives in Springville, Utah.