Tähtifantasia Award Nominees

There’s going to be a new sf award in Finland—Tähtifantasia (“Star Fantasy”)—for translated fantasy literature. The award is given by the Helsinki sf society (publisher of Tähtivaeltaja) that also administers the Tähtivaeltaja award for best science fiction book published in Finnish.

The nominees for the first Tähtifantasia award are:

• Valkoiset omenat (White Apples), by Jonathan Carroll (published by Loki-Kirjat)
• Uuskummaa? Modernin fantasian antologia, by Jukka Halme (ed., Kirjava)
• Miekkamyrsky 2 (A Storm of Swords, 2nd half), by George R. R. Martin (Kirjava)
• Unohdettu Ombria (Ombria in Shadow), by Patricia A. McKillip (Otava)
• Pyhimysten ja mielipuolten kaupunki (City of Saints and Madmen), by Jeff VanderMeer (Loki-Kirjat)
  

This is a very impressive collection of nominees for the first award. Although, from looking at them, I think it’s pretty obvious one aim of the new award is to focus on non-traditional fantasy that breaks traditional genre boundaries (and the award committee pretty much says so themselves), and therefore it feels a bit silly to me to add a new award specifically for the fantasy “genre” instead of widening the scope of the Tähtivaeltaja award to cover all fantastic literature. There’s some discussion on this on Babek nabel (from the other side of the fence too).

The award jury consists of critic Toni Jerrman, writer Anne Leinonen, critic Elli Leppä, and journalist Vesa Sisättö. The winner will be announced in August.