Portti Short Story Competition 2012

The Tampere Science Fiction Society has traditionally kept very quiet about the results of their annual short story competition, but from the URS Facebook update we learn about this year’s results. The results are:

1. Janne Juhani Kuusinen: Todistaja (2000 €)
2. (tie) Katri Laukkanen: Kierto (500 €)
   Tero Niemi: Kasvottomien kellojen Ursula (500 €)
3. Shimo Suntila: Milla ja Meri (300 €)

The award for the winner is 2000 euros; the total sum of the awards divided between the winners and honorary mentions is 4200 euros. The award jury was: professor Frans Mäyrä, editor Kanerva Eskola, and Portti editor Raimo Nikkonen. Congratulations to the winners!

Updated with info from FSFWA (story names and price sums); more info there.

Kalevi Jäntti Award to Emmi Itäranta

The Kalevi Jäntti fund gives out awards to promising young writers. This year, three authors have received the award, and one of them is Emmi Itäranta for her debut novel Teemestarin kirja. The novel is a dystopic tale of a future world that is almost out of water. The novel is beautiful and I’m very happy it gets recognition. The prize is worth 16 000 euros.

Update: According to YLE news, Teemestarin kirja will be published in English by HarperCollins in USA, Britain and Australia in 2014.

Iron Sky Team's New Project

This has been covered, in addition to the Finnish papers, in at least Variety & Hollywood Reporter (and of course spread all over Facebook and Twitter), so you’ve probably seen it already, but: the Iron Sky team’s next film (together with several international players) will be Jeremiah Harm, a hard-boiled sf action flick based on a graphic novel by Alan Grant and Keith Giffen. In addition to the international cast and crew, they will once again be collaborating with fans, so check out the team’s blog for further information along the way.

Iron Sky Awarded at Utopiales

No mention on the official web site yet, but according to a tweet from Energia, Iron Sky was awarded the Audience Award and a Special Jury Mention at the Utopiales science fiction festival in France. Congrats!

Turku Newsletter

The “Turku newsletter” is a new project that sends an e-mail on the 1st of every month. The newsletter covers sfnally interesting things that happen in the Turku area during the month.

The e-mail is distributed via the Turku sf society mailing list. This is a low-volume list that everybody interested is invited to join (no membership required). The newsletters are also archived, so you can read them via the web if you prefer.

The archive plus a link for joining the mailing list can be found on the list info page. The first newsletter came out yesterday, and covers events in November.

Pub Meeting on Thursday

November starts this Thursday, and that means that the monthly pub meeting is upon us once more. See you at Teerenpeli on Thursday at six!

URS has published a new anthology, Me emme valehtele ja muita Puolueen hyväksymiä novelleja (“We do not lie, and other stories endorsed by the Party“). These will be for sale at the pub meeting, so come take a look!

New Sf Con in Vantaa Next April

Spefi-Vantaa is a new one-day minicon that will be held at the Tikkurila library April 13 next year. There will be a guest of honor (a good one, but not officially published so I can’t reveal who she is yet) and other programming, in the same vein as the Tamfan and Turconen minicons. More info on the website, or from Ella Peltonen.