Writing About Writing

The “Kirjoita kirjoittamisesta” writing competition (“Write about writing”) results have been announced. The competition had two categories, short stories and columns.

The short story category had a total of four winners: Kirjoituskilpailu (“Writing competition”, a story about two neighbors who challenge each other to a writing competition) by Mira Karppelin, Todellinen kirjoittaminen (“True writing”, a futuristic tale of a world where the writer and the writing equipment have merged) by Jaana Lehtiö, Luuranko (“Skeleton”, a Poe-style pastiche about a writer) by Klaus Ollikainen, and Niin oli kirjoitettu (“So it was written”, a short story about a young man who, while writing an essay about a famous writer, starts writing poetry to impress the opposite sex.) by Niko Peltonen.

The column category winner was Vesa A. Korhonen for his text, Kolumnin kirjoittamisen sietämätön keveys (“The unbearable lightness of writing a column”, a humoristic pondering on writing a good column).

While I think the idea for the competition was a good one, especially the winner of the non-fiction category sounds a bit off-putting. Columns about writing columns almost always tend to be irritating navel gazing with no substance, and the awful, clichéd title doesn’t make things any better. That said, since the text was deemed the best by the judges, I have to admit I look forward to reading it and having my preconceptions proved wrong!

The competition was organized by the Finnish Science Fiction Writers Association and the Usva web zine. The judges were Kosmoskynä editor Pasi Karppanen and Usva Editor Anne Leinonen. The winners were awarded cash prizes of 50 euros, and the texts will be published in future issues of Kosmoskynä and Usva.