Last First Thursday

The last Turku pub meeting for this year is today. That means I’ll be in Bar Bremer at six. Hope to see you there too!

Tähtivaeltaja Short Story Competition

The Helsinki Science Fiction Society has announced the second Tähtivaeltaja short story competition. The theme is “sf in space”. The winner will receive a cash prize of 350 euros and there are book and other prizes for the runners up to be awarded by the jury.

The preliminary jury (researcher Irma Hirsjärvi and author Anne Leinonen) will select the finalists, and the winner will be decided by a jury comprising editor Toni Jerrman, editor Jukka Halme, and author Tiina Raevaara.

More info (in Finnish) on Babek nabel.

Management by Sauron

On Friday, there was a dissertation at the University of Tampere, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Dept. of Management Studies titled, “Valta, johtajuus, tuho ja toivo J.R.R. Tolkienin teoksessa Taru sormusten herrasta” (“Power, leadership, destruction and hope in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings”). Harri Hietikko has studied the phenomena of power and leadership in Tolkien’s novel, the power structures in the societies of Middle Earth, and the struggle to own the ring of power. The key question of the dissertation is if the book can give something concrete to the management in modern work society. Hietikko has researched the types of leaders in the book, the patterns of management that can be found in it, the governmental structures in Tolkien’s world, and the different types of leadership myths that can be found in the book.

Damn

According to Aamulehti, the Tampere winter swimmers’ sauna has burned down. Might mean we need to find a new place for the annual fandom co-operation meeting.

Ecstatic for a Few Days

I’m a guest blogger at Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days this week, sharing the spotlight with Jukkahoo. I’ll probably be mostly talking about Finnish fandom (the first post is up now), so if you’ve been reading this blog, you already pretty much know the things I’ll be saying. But head there anyway to see what Jukka is up to, and do browse the blog further—it’s definitely worth reading.

Åcon 3 Announces GoH

Åcon 3 has announced their Guest of Honor (website update still pending): British author Steph Swainston comes to Mariehamn next May. Great news and a great choice for a guest—make sure you'll be there too!

Kuvastaja Award 2008

The Kuvastaja award for the best Finnish fantasy book published last year was announced on Sunday at the Helsinki Book Fair. The winner is Viides tuuli (“The Fifth Wind”) by Päivi Honkapää. From the jury’s description of the book, “The idea about the winds and their world was great; the world felt thought out, but the book only told what was necessary—sense of wonder rarely seen in fantasy”.

Viides tuuli is Päivi Honkapää’s debut novel. It also won the 2007 Tiiliskivi (“Brick”) award: a book award by the literature students of the Tampere University meant to bring to public awareness good books that have been ignored by the mainstream media. The book was published by WSOY.

The shortlist consisted also of Hyinen hauta by Ilkka Auer, Suomu by Sari Peltoniemi, and Tuulihevonen by Ulla Viertola. This was the eight time the award was given by the Finnish Tolkien Society.