Holappa held many jobs before becoming a political journalist and eventually obtaining a government post. He was self-educated, but produced around fifteen volumes of poetry, as well as several novels and essays. He also worked as a translator; among the poets and authors whose work he translated into Finnish are Charles Baudelaire, Pierre Reverdy, and J. M. G. Le Clézio. He received the Finlandia Prize in 1998 for his novel "Ystävän muotokuva: Portrait of a Friend".