Finlandia Award Nominees 2018

The Finlandia Award nominees for this year have been announced, and there are a couple of familiar sfnal names in the mix. Magdalena Hai’s Kolmas sisar and Siiri Enoranta’s Tuhatkuolevan kirous are nominees for best children & YA novel, and the general literature category nominees announced today include Hunan by J. Pekka Mäkelä. Huge congrats to both for the nominations!

Updated to include Enoranta, and a hat tip to Toni Jerrman for noticing I had overlooked a nominee!

Awards at Finncon

As usual, there were a few awards given out at Finncon last weekend in Turku. Here's a rundown of the results.

Atorox

The Atorox Award for best Finnish sf short story published last year went to Jenny Kangasvuo. The top 3 for this year was,

1. Musta otsa by Jenny Kangasvuo, published in Portti 4/2016
2. Mansikkakakku by Emma Keski-Kuha, published in Portti 1/2017
3. Muistot putoilevat meistä by Terhi Tarkiainen, published in Portti 4/2016

Anthologies have been very strong in the Atorox results recently, but this year Portti took back its place as top sf short story publisher—4 of the top 5 stories were published in Portti. Seven of the top ten stories were written by women.

Tähtifantasia

The Tähtifantasia Award for best fantasy book translated into Finnish in 2017 went to Luukellot (The Bone Clocks) by David Mitchell. The novel is translated by Einari Aaltonen, and published by Sammakko.

The jury commended the book’s handling of the themes of time, and the worth of eternal life, and how it tackles changes in society and consequences of climate change, yet is also an entertaining read. The Finnish translation gets a special mention from the jury.

Nova

The Nova short story competition for new writers top 3 was:

1. Parveke taivaan laidalla by Jasmin Kuusela
2. (tie) Kumskin lapset by Milka Hakkarainen, and Lajinsa ainoa by Kaj Syrjänen

A total of 134 stories were sent to the competition.

Finfar Thesis Competition

The Finnish fantasy researchers association organized for the first time a competition for best Finnish master's thesis on a speculative fiction topic published in 2017. The winner was Silja Korkeamäki’s thesis “It's turning into a horror story” : Intermediaalisuus ja lajikytkökset pelin Alan Wake kertovissa teksteissä. The research studies the narrative texts in the computer game Alan Wake, their intermediality, and their use of different genre traditions.

Tähtivaeltaja Award Nominees 2018

The shortlist for the Tähtivaeltaja Award has been announced. This year no less than four of the five nominees are Finnish — this is a first (as far as I can remember).

The nominees are:

• Verso by Tuomo Jäntti (Gummerus)
• Mehiläistie by Heikki Kännö (Sammakko)
• Pinnan alla pimeä by Jukka Laajarinne (Atena)
• Luukellot (The Bone Clocks) by David Mitchell (Sammakko)
• Tuomiopäivän karavaani by Jani Saxell (WSOY)

The Tähtivaeltaja Award is given annually to the best science fiction book published in Finland during the previous year. The jury is: journalist Hannu Blommila, editor Toni Jerrman, critic Elli Leppä, and critic Antti Oikarinen. The winner will be announced in May.