Routasisarukset is a Finlandia Junior nominee

The nominees for this year’s Finlandia Junior literary prize (for YA and children’s literature) have been announced. One of the nominees is Routasisarukset, the first in a series of novels set in a dystopian 24th century by Eija Lappalainen and Anne Leinonen. Congratulations!

Pub Meeting on Thursday

The Turku pub meeting for November is this Thursday. We’re back in Teerenpeli for the winter.

The pub meeting starts at six; the reading group gathers at that time to discuss this year’s Atorox-winning short story Nahat by Anne Leinonen. If you want to participate but don’t have last year’s issue 3 of Portti handy, you can get the story from me, courtesy of Anne.

Welcome!

Kuvastaja Award to Pasi Jääskeläinen

Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen has received the Kuvastaja award for his novel Harjukaupungin salakäytävät. The award is given annually by the Finnish Tolkien Society for the best Finnish fantasy book published in the previous year.

The award was announced during the Helsinki book fair last weekend. There isn’t any more information about this on the Tolkien Society web page, but Pasi has commented the award on his blog. Kuvastaja is a juried award (I haven’t seen a press release, so I don’t know who were on the jury this year), often given to books that are of high literary quality and—despite being administered by the Tolkien Society—represent the non-traditional side of the fantastic (thus again in this year soliciting some comments from book bloggers that the book can’t be fantasy because they liked it and they don’t read fantasy). This is the second time Jääskeläinen has won it (his debut novel also won the award).

Congratulations!

Krohn in ODD?

The first ODD? anthology by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer has been published and contains the short story “The Night of the Normal Distribution Curve” by Leena Krohn.

ODD? is available as an e-book in the Wizard’s Tower Bookstore (also Weightless books and other indie distributors). Up to tomorrow (Friday), you can also subscribe to the first three volumes of ODD as either e-book or print editions (or both) at a discounted prize directly from Cheeky Frawg.

Petri Hiltunen in Turku tomorrow

Petri Hiltunen is speaking in the Turku city library tomorrow from 5 PM to 7 PM as part of the comics meetings series for young people. The event is organized by the library and the Turku comics club.

Pub Meeting on Thursday in Koulu

The Turku sf pub meeting is this Thursday. We meant to move back to the regular place (Teerenpeli) but they are celebrating their birthday on Thursday, which probably means the place will be packed (and everybody would have to get an invite), so the pub meeting will be held in Koulu. Starting the usual time, at six. Welcome!

Grant to Toni Jerrman

Congratulations to Toni Jerrman for receiving a 1-year critic grant from the Arts Council of Finland!