Veijo Baltzar

Who is Veijo Baltzar?

Veijo Oskari Baltzar is a Finnish Romani author. Since his first novel Polttava tie in 1968 he has been Finland’s leading Romani author. Polttava tie was the first novel in Finland in which a member of the community approached the hidden world of Romani culture. Since then Baltzar has discussed the Romani culture and its relationship with the majority culture in several novels, plays, poems, short stories, librettos, articles, radio plays and movie manuscripts.

Besides being a writer, Baltzar has also been active as a theatre director and as a playwright. His short movie Punainen puutarha was awarded in Dublin in 1980. He founded the first and only Roma theatre group in Finland in 1976, Drom. In 1981, Drom won the Theatre Action of the Year prize. At the beginning of the eighties Baltzar worked as a teacher in the Theatre Academy of Finland. In that position he was able to make Roma theatre known by showing how diverse and rich the tradition of the Roma is. Drom performed all around Finland for ten years.

Baltzar has written and directed about ten tragedies, in addition to poetic plays and musicals for the group. After a period when he wrote novels again, Baltzar returned to theatre in 1992, and he has since then continued to write plays and to direct. The author also actively makes visual arts. He is currently president of International Romani Writers' Association.