Mari Saario Wins Atorox

The Atorox award for the best Finnish short story published last year was just announced at Finncon. This year’s winner is Mari Saario’s Kenkänaula, published in Portti 1/2008.

This year’s top ten is:

1. Kenkänaula, Mari Saario (Portti 1/2008)
   
2. Gliesen lapset, Tiina Raevaara (Portti 3/2008)
   
3. Oksia, puita, kuolleitten luita, Katja Salminen (Usva 4/2008)
   
4. Talven portti, Niilo Sevänen (Spin 3/2007)
   
5. Käenmuna, Jenny Kangasvuo (Hekuman huipulla)
   
6. Farared Finnen saaga, Mike Pohjola (Usva 3/2008)
   
7. Kutsuvat sitä kuolemaksi, Anne Leinonen  (Portti 3/2008)
   
8. Peniskuiskaajat, Tuomas Saloranta (Hekuman huipulla)
   
9. Kausin taivas, Tytti Heikkinen (Portti 2/2008)
   
10. Uhanalaiset, Christine Thorel (Portti 2/2008)
    

Finncon 2009 Program

The Finncon program has been published (more or less—it has been living in a wiki, and the final version should be appearing any moment now).

Collected here is a listing of the program items that will be held in English. This should be final, but if I spot changes later on, I’ll update them here. Duration of the items is one hour unless specified otherwise.

Friday

• 15.00 Science in Science Fiction (Pannuhalli)
  How much is enough science in science fiction? And how much is TOO much? Tommy Persson (chair), Toni Jerrman, Alastair Reynolds, Johan Jönsson, J. Pekka Mäkelä
  
• 16.00 Adam Roberts Interview (Valssaamo)
• 17.00 On Writing: The GoHs are interviewed on writing (Merikaapelihalli)
• 18.?? (after the opening ceremony) George R.R. Martin GoH Speech (Merikaapelihalli)

Saturday

• 11.00 The New Breed—Modern Vampire Mythos (Pannuhalli)
  Ever since Anne Rice introduced vampire Lestat to the unsuspecting audience, the children of the night have transformed from blood-thirsty Balkan nobility into something a bit more… sexier and about as blood-thirsty. Tanja Sihvonen (chair), George R.R. Martin, Tarja Rainio, Päivi Väätänen
  
• 14.00–15.30 George R.R. Martin GoH Interview (Merikaapelihalli)
• 15.00 Alastair Reynolds Speaks and Reads (Valssaamo)
• 16.00 Hugo 2009 Discussion (Turbiinisali)
  The panel of experts say what they think about the current crop of the Hugo Award nominees. Marianna Leikomaa (chair), Ben Roimola, Tommy Persson, Cheryl Morgan, Adam Roberts
  
• 17.00–18.30 Adam Roberts Speech (Turbiinisali)
• 18.00 Alastair Reynolds GoH Interview (Pannuhalli)

Sunday

• 11.00 Journey into Space (Turbiinisali)
  Have space, will travel. A serious discussion about possibilities, fantasies and realites of the space travel. Alastair Reynolds, Antti Oikarinen
  
• 12.00 Big Is Better But Small Is Beautiful (Pannuhalli)
  Does fantasy have to be big and epic? Is there room for something less grandeur? General preconception of fantasy still tends to veer toward the door stopping bulky pseudo medieval mammoth, but that is not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Jukka Halme (chair), George R.R. Martin, Johan Anglemark, Markku Soikkeli, Cheryl Morgan
  
• 13.00–15.00 Researchers’ Field-Trips to SF (Watti-Kela)
  SF Research in Finland: A Report from the FINFAR Meeting. Merja Polvinen; The Rise of Post-Pulp: Jack Vance's Dying Earth Series. Mika Loponen; others TBA
• 14.00 Book Talk (Turbiinisali)
  What to read when all the translated books have been read? Jukka Halme (chair), Cheryl Morgan, Hannu Blommila, Marianna Leikomaa
  
• 15.00 Book Then, Book Now, Book in the Future (Valssaamo)
  Book is a book, except when it’s not. The future of book is the question: will there still be books as we know them now? Is the electronic version The Way or is there a third alternative? Jukka Halme (chair), Tommy Persson, Johan Jönsson, Alastair Reynolds, Juhani Hinkkanen
  
• 16.00 Doctor Who (Valssaamo)
  Travel with the Timelord through time and space. Kristoffer Lawson.
  
• 17.00 George R.R. Martin Reading (Merikaapelihalli)

In addition there will also be kaffeeklatch sessions with the GoHs—inquire at the info desk if you want some face time with them at the convention.

Update July 7: Minor corrections to program participants
Update July 1: Researchers’s Field-Trips to SF added (Sunday)

Sandman Lilius Cancels Finncon Appearance

Finncon 2009 reports that unfortunately Irmelin Sandman Lilius is unable to appear as a GoH due to family reasons. Sad news indeed.

Finncon Accommodation

Need a room for Finncon? The con site has accommodation information including a link you can use to book a room in the official con hotel (Holiday Inn Helsinki City West, only a few hundred meters from the con site) for a special price of 70 €/night. (If you don’t care about breakfast, you can book the room directly, although that only saves you a couple of euros per night so probably not worth it.)

Another very good hotel within walking distance (about 1 km) is the Radisson SAS Seaside. There’s currently a special price for “S-kortti” (a Finnish store chain membership card) holders: you can book a room online for just 55 €/night at the hotel (Offer expires on May 15).

A good inexpensive alternative are the two Omena hotels in Helsinki. The rooms are about 60 €/night, but up to four people can stay in the same room (if you don’t mind it being a little cramped, of course) with no extra cost, so it’s a very good deal.

There are also links to a couple of nearby hostels on the Finncon accommodation page.

I’ve put together a map where you can see the location of these hotels in relation to the con site.

Finncon 2009 Blog

Finncon 2009 has started a blog in English, so head there if you want to be kept current on what’s happening.

Unfortunately the RSS feed isn’t working yet, but I’m sure that will be fixed shortly.

Edit 2009-04-02 The feeds are now in order.

Researching the Fantastic—Call for Papers

A seminar of science fiction and fantasy research will take place in connection with Finncon for the 10th time this year. The call for papers is enclosed:

RESEARCHING THE FANTASTIC—JOURNEYS AND METHODOLOGIES

The 10th Seminar of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research in Finland
Department of English, University of Helsinki
Thursday 9th and Friday 10th July, 2009

The 10th Seminar of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research in Finland will take place in Helsinki in connection with Finncon 2009. We wish to invite papers on the general theme of “journey”. Voyaging is one of the foundational motifs of science fiction and fantasy. What does a journey teach us, or what does it teach about us? Does the journey bring us face to face with otherness? This seminar invites proposals that explore, for example, the journey as a narrative and/or ideological model, inner journeys as well as external journeys, time-travels or travels represented at various times in the history of literature.

This year the seminar will also give special attention to questions of research methodology in general, as well as questions that concern research into genre literature in particular.

The proposed papers may be work towards a Pro Gradu or a PhD dissertation, or be drafts for articles or essays either in Finnish or in English. Proposals concerning issues other than our specified themes are also welcome and will be accommodated if at all possible.

The aim of the seminar is to promote Finnish multidisciplinary research on science fiction and fantasy and to enhance the international contacts of the Finnish research network.

Our international guest speaker is Professor Adam Roberts (Royal Holloway, University of London), author of Science Fiction (2000) in the Routledge New Critical Idioms series, and of Yellow Blue Tibia (2009), which is his latest novel. Also partaking in the seminar are Professor Bo Pettersson (University of Helsinki), Professor Liisa Rantalaiho (University of Tampere), Professor Frans Mäyrä (University of Tampere), Dr Irma Hirsjärvi (University of Jyväskylä), Dr Markku Soikkeli (University of Tampere) and Dr Merja Polvinen (University of Helsinki).

In addition to the two-day workshop the researchers’ meeting also includes plenty of academic programming over Saturday and Sunday during the Finncon event.

Please send a 500-word abstract in Word or RTF format to merja.polvinen@helsinki.fi by the 16th of April 2009. You will be notified of the outcome of your proposal by the 1st of May. For the seminar we wish to receive a research paper of c. 2000–3000 words.

Organizers: FINFAR – Finnish Network of Fantasy Research, University of Helsinki Department of English and Finncon 2009 (http://2009.finncon.org/).
Coordinator: Merja Polvinen.

Finncon Gets Grants, Researcher Guest

Finncon 2009 has received funding from the Ministry of Education (6 000 €) and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland (1 500 €). Yay!

In addition, the University of Helsinki has decided to sponsor the researchers’ meeting, and with their support Finncon will be bringing author and critic Adam Roberts to Finland to participate in the research workshop (and naturally the rest of Finncon too). Congratulations, and looking forward to Finncon even more than before!

Irmelin Sandman Lilius GoH at Finncon

Finncon 2009’s Finnish Guest of Honor is the renowned fantasy author Irmelin Sandman Lilius. She’s written children’s books as well as books for aduls, and received numerous Swedish and Finnish literary awards. Her works have been translated into numerous languages.

Finncon Has Program

Finncon 2009 has started listing some program items on its web site (only in Finnish so far, though).

The Most Romantic And Tasty Finncon

In case you’re thinking of traveling to Finland for Finncon this July (and if you aren’t, you should be), here’s an additional incentive: The Times Online lists Helsinki as one of the most romantic cities and recommends it especially for the cuisine.

Finncon Fever

Finncon fever might be in the rise. The Finnish party at Eurocon got very positive feedback and I think many more international fen are now aware of Finncon than before. According to one Eurocon report the best thing at the con was the Finncon 2009 ad that said George R.R. Martin is one of the Guests of Honor. We might have a reason to expect many more international fen at the 2009 con than usual. (And I’m hoping Finncon 2008 will see a surge of international members as well.)

Finncon 2009 GoHs

Finncon 2009 in Helsinki is living up to their promise of being the biggest Finncon yet. They’ve announced their Guests of Honor will be George R.R. Martin and Alastair Reynolds. Both are already known in Finland and have fans here which should bring in some extra folk (what’s a couple of thousands more at a Finncon).

In the meantime, don’t forget next year’s Finncon in Tampere either.