Tähtifantasia Award to Haruki Murakami

Still catching up on news published at Finncon: The Helsinki Science Fiction Society’s Tähtifantasia award for the best fantasy book translated into Finnish and published last year was given to Haruki Murakami for Kafka rannalla (Kafka on the Shore), published in Finnish by Tammi.

In the press release, the jury complemented the novel of being easy to read and having a good rhythm despite being over 600 pages long. The plot has some surprising turns and the story is emphasized by warm humor. The visions of Murakami are fascinating; he presents riddles for the reader and challenges them to make their own decisions about the story. The style combines fluently the conscious and the subconscious, reality and another world. There are countless possibilities in the mind; the moral responsibility begins with dreams. Even though the novel describes a murder and the death of a loved one, it is basically life-affirming. The main characters meet people with big hearts who want to help them. Life can’t stand still; humanity comprises the actions we take and the choices we make in life.

The jury consisted of critic Jukka Halme, critic Aleksi Kuutio, writer and editor Anne Leinonen, and Risingshadow.net representative Osmo Määttä.

Usva Shortshort Competition Results

The Usva zine short short story (under 1700 words) competition results were also announced at Finncon. The competition had five judges, but instead of jointly deciding the winner, each judge picked their own winner among the competing entries. The winners are:

• Marissa Janhunen: Kauniit vihreät pilvet; picked by Tiina Raevaara
• Tuomas Saloranta: Avaruusloinen, picked by Petri Salin
• Tuomas Saloranta: Nuori mies nimetön; picked by Irma Hirsjärvi
• A.C. Ross: Ruumis; picked by Sari Peltoniemi and Liisa Rantalaiho

The winners received a price sum of 100 € each. The stories and judges’ comments will be published in October in Usva 4/2010.

Heikki Nevala Wins Atorox 2010

Slowly recuperating from Finncon, so this is already old news. But better late than never: the Atorox award for best Finnish short story published in 2009 went to Heikki Nevala for his story Koneesta sinä olet syntyvä (“From a machine shall you be born”).

The top ten looks like this:

1. Heikki Nevala: Koneesta sinä olet syntyvä (Portti 4/09)
2. J. Pekka Mäkelä: Kolmekymmentä vuotta (Tähtivaeltaja 1/09)
3. Anne Leinonen: Pienen rasian jumala (Portti 1/09)
4. Tomi Jänkälä: Keskikesällä Harri (Usva 4/09)
5. Petri Salin: Requiem sudelle (Portti 1/09)
6. Timo Männikkö: Miekkaa mahtavampi (Portti 2/09)
7. Marika Riikonen: Terveisiä älylliseltä elämältä (Tähtivaeltaja 4/09)
8. Jussi Katajala: Lemminkäisen kuolema (Tuhansien zombien maa)
9. Tomi Jänkälä: Veden vangit (Usva 2/09)
10. Mika-Petri Lauronen: Mäyränä nummia tonkii (Portti 1/09)

The Atorox award is decided by a popular vote by fandom, and is given out by the Turku Science Fiction Society, this year for the 28th time.

Home from Finncon

Back home from Finncon. Had a great time! Since I spent very little time hanging out at the actual con site or watching programming this year, these are mostly random notes and observations rather than any coherent con report. I'm sure there will be plenty of those around soon as well.

Finncon without Animecon was a success. I don’t think any of the naysayers who told us it couldn’t be done after so many years together with the anime people hold that opinion any more. The estimated attendance was around 3 500 people visiting the con site (combined total of Saturday and Sunday visitors)—on both days there were around 1 500 persons present simultaneously at moments when all the programming rooms and the hallways were full, and of course while most people were there on both days, there were a lot of people that only came on one day plus locals who visited the site during the day. In addition, there were some people at the Kirjailijatalo and quite a lot of folks at the Ilokivi (where the Wreckamovie festival took place). So the amount of unique attendees was probably around, or at least very close to, the official target of 2010 people.

The PR about the lack of Animecon could and should perhaps have been done with a bit more sensitivity. I gather some anime fans felt they were looked down and frowned upon—this wasn’t intentional, but I can see how the happy enjoyment of “we got our convention back” could be taken as a sign of animosity towards the anime crowds, even if it wasn’t meant that way. I hear there will be a stand-alone Animecon in 2012. I’m very happy that the tradition will not die out, and am sure it can be very good—based on what I’ve heard about them, the Finnish anime conventions such as Tracon and Desucon have proven that the anime people can organize terrific conventions.

The convention site was rather hot—Finnish buildings aren’t equipped for dealing with temperatures close to 30 degrees Celsius—but it didn’t seem too bad. It seemed much cooler inside to me than at a couple of previous Finncons; probably this was because there weren’t such huge crowds inside the building.

Entering the con site for the first time was a very good experience for me. My first reaction was, “Wow, this looks just like Finncons used to,” with the hallway full of people browsing the books at the vendors’ tables, chatting at the sf societies‘ tables, hanging out in the cafe—and running frantically behind the info desk. I heard quite a few people mention that for the first time in years they met new people and got better acquainted by ones they’d only met briefly before just by walking around and starting to chat with each other.

The programming got good feedback as well. The only bigger criticism—that I heard, that is—were that there were too many interesting program items going on simultaneously, that some very similar items clashed, and that one person couldn’t make the only item they were interested in when arriving by train the same day and not wanting to come the day before. To which my respective responses would be, I’m glad to hear that; yes, unfortunate but unavoidable; and, well, tough.

The Guests of Honor couldn’t have been more perfect. Both our foreign GoHs Ellen Kushner and Pat Cadigan proved just as charming, witty, and funny as we had hoped, and provided us with many interesting talks and discussions. Their days were programmed pretty full, but they never complained or disappointed. Our Finnish GoHs Sari Peltoniemi and Liisa Rantalaiho we already knew, and so knew them to be just as great guests as they indeed were. And wonderful were as well out other foreign guests, fantasy author Delia Sherman who accompanied Ellen and charmed everybody, and critic and editor Cheryl Morgan, a regular visitor of Finncons, trusted panelist and great all-around PR woman (as well as a kind-of visiting guest liaison).

The Saturday evening party was at Lozzi. The place was really hot (poor masquerade participants who had to endure the heat in their costumes during the awards ceremony), but luckily the weather was fine and the terrace was large enough for pretty much everybody not driven away by the poor selection of beers and exorbitant prices at the bar. The masquerade awards ceremony was very entertaining (the prize categories included, for example, best sucking up to the judges, and the prizes were, among others, cute toy animals and “Epic boobs”—and also “Epic man-boobs”—t-shirts). There were some very impressive costumes, especially the Farscape team (their Chiana was perfect) and the elven warrior from LOTR. All in all, despite the beer being bad and expensive, people seemed to enjoy themselves. I didn’t stay very late, but had time to meet a lot of people and have some very good conversations.

The media coverage of Finncon was pretty amazing. For starters, our GoHs got a full culture section front page in Helsingin Sanomat (the largest daily newspaper in all the Nordic countries), and there were also mentions and articles in several other papers (including a four-page one in Huvudstadsbladet), and even a couple of tv spots. So we’re very happy about that. Also, her Finnish publisher told us, Pat Cadigan’s Mielenpeli, published just a couple of days before the convention, is already going on its third printing. Win!

There was one unique aspect of Finncon this year, not directly related to this convention. There were several bids for organizing Finncon in 2012. Both Tampere and Helsinki had launched serious bids for the convention (although Tampere’s bidding and publicity was much more active at the convention and Helsinki took a somewhat more laid-back approach); Espoo and Moon had also signed up, but it is telling of their bids that Espoo promised an extra day for everyone if they won (June 31st, 2012), and Moon was the only one that had facilities ready—after all, they have a vacant base after the Moon Nazis return to conquer Earth in 2011. The results of the vote were announced at the ending ceremony, and Tampere got a deserved victory, receiving more votes than the other candidates put together. The Helsinki delegate tried to raise suspicions about the result but was swiftly manhandled out of the stage by the security personnel. (Thanks, by the way, Tampere fandom for handling the security at the convention!)

The closing ceremony went rather well, if I say so myself. I was told I’m supposed to be on stage too, and my impromptu translations of Anne’s speech got a few laughs from the audience. We thanked the GoHs and everybody who took part in organizing the convention (this year, maybe more than most, there were many to thank: whole sections of the convention such as security, sales, and publicity were mostly handled by fandom from other cities than Jyväskylä; this convention truly was a joint effort of the whole Finnish fandom) and said our goodbyes.

It was then time for the dead dog party, in the traditional sauna-by-the-lakeside. Food, sauna, swimming, beer, cigars, and relaxing after the weekend. The GoHs seemed to love the gift bags presented to them by Kati, the GoH liaison, and even had some presents for the committee. (I got the very cool anthology The Green Man that contains a short story by Delia, among many other fine writers, and fabulous illustrations by Charles Vess—thank you!)

The dead dog ended at 11 PM, but since we didn’t feel like going to bed, it was decided to have a post-dead dog party in a pub at the center of Jyväskylä. Soon the place was filled with sf folk (people from at least Finland, Sweden, and Latvia attended) and raucous merriment. I had to bail out at around 1 AM, but I heard some even continued to a post-post-party after the pub closed its doors.

I didn’t get to talk to quite as many people at the convention as I would have liked (mainly because of going to bed quite early each night), but that’s how it always goes. Was very happy to see quite a few Swedes at the convention—I hope you all had a good time! My friend Dave described a dream convention as something "where people keep talking about awesome things you didn't see because you were at something else awesome”. I think that is a very good description, and it also describes my Finncon this year very well.

See you next year in Turku!

Earlier posts on Thursday and Friday.

Finncon: Friday

The first day of Finncon is behind us. Didn’t actually manage to catch much of the programming, but there seemed to be a good crowd (the Kirjailijatalo terrace, where the program was—quite sensibly—moved from the inside, was a bit small and not everybody could fit in, but inside the house would have been just too hot).

There was some excellent media publicity today—Finncon got the front page of the culture section of Helsingin Sanomat! There was a big article about Pat Cadigan (an excerpt is available online), a review of Mielenpeli (Mindplayers, published just in time for the con), and also an article about Ellen Kushner. The convention was also mentioned in regional newspapers. Go us!

Things like organizing some last minute changes to the weekend schedule, battling with the technology, and moving the GoHs to another hotel better equipped to handle this weather (air conditioning, yay!) took most of the day, but I did manage to catch parts of the Hugo discussion. It was very entertaining, witty and informative, like you can expect from Cheryl, Jukkahoo, Kisu, and Tommy. (Note to future organizers: this is a program item you can, and should, have each year!)

After the “official” hours, it was time to move to Sohwi for the traditional Friday evening gettogether. A lot of familiar faces, and some new ones. Food, a couple of beers and relaxed conversation in good company; just what the doctor ordered. And got some planning done for Åcon 5 as well! A good first day.

Tomi Jänkälä Wins Nova First Prize

The Nova 2010 short story competition results were announced today at Finncon 2010 in Jyväskylä. The first prize in the competition went to Jyväskylä’s own Tomi Jänkälä for his story Uralin sininen (“Ural Blue”). The first prize is 200 €. The top three of the competition were:

1. Tomi Jänkälä: Uralin sininen
2. Jaana Lehtiö: Palautus
3. Anna Malinen: Vihat

There were 96 competitors this year with 128 entries altogether. Both new and experienced writers attended the competition (Nova is a competition for writers who haven’t yet published a book).

The jury of the competition consisted of Marianna Leikomaa, Pasi Karppanen, Aleksi Kuutio, Anne Leinonen, and Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo. The competition is organized by the Finnish SF Writers Association and the Turku Science Fiction Society. The competition got funding from Taiteen Keskustoimikunta.

Finncon Beginning

It’s time for the Finnish national convention once again. This year Finncon will be held in Jyäskylä, GoHs are Ellen Kushner, Pat Cadigan, Sari Peltoniemi, and fan GoH Liisa Rantalaiho. Also appearing are American fantasy author Delia Sherman, British editor and critic Cheryl Morgan, and a whole bunch of Finnish writers and other interesting sf persons.

So far the arrangements have gone recently well. The foreign guests arrived safely and were yesterday taken to a dinner cruise in the Helsinki archipelago. Today started with a press conference (which went very well), followed by a drive to Jyväskylä, just in time for the city reception (for the Jyväskylän kesä arts festival that Finncon is part of).

After a very hot day it was very nice to go to a lakeside cabin in the vicinity of Jyväskylä (which we found, eventually, with only a couple of wrong turns) for some evening snacks, a sauna, and a swim at the lake.

Tomorrow, the convention program starts with some literature and film programming, and the convention proper takes place on Saturday and Sunday at the university main building. See you there!

Usva International Edition 2010

The excellent Usva webzine has a new international (read: in English) edition out, just in time for Finncon. It contains six short stories by Katja Salminen, Marika Riikonen, Marketta Niemelä, Carita Forsgren, Marko Hautala, and Tomi Jänkälä. Go download your dose of quality Finnish fiction in handy pdf format!