Saario in Albedo One

The Irish sf magazine Albedo One’s latest issue (#39) contains an English translation of Mari Saario’s short story The Horse Shoe Nail (Kenkänaula) which won the Atorox Award in 2009 for best Finnish sf story. The issue is available as a paper copy and also in pdf format—no ebook version, alas.

New Date for Finsmofcon

Just a quick post to note that, to avoid a clash with a big fandom social event, the Finnish "smofcon" (yhteistyökokous) has been moved one week earlier than previously announced, to Saturday, February 19. The place is the traditional Kaupinoja sauna in Tampere.

His Master’s Voice Online

The latest issue of the Redstone Science Fiction webzine features the short story His Master’s Voice by Hannu Rajaniemi. This very cool story first appeared in English in Interzone #218. In Finnish, it was originally published in the Usva web zine, and came fourth in the 2006 Atorox awards (the annual fan vote award for best Finnish short story).

PS The latest issue of the excellent Tähtivaeltaja zine is out, and it contains an interview with and a new short story by Hannu. Among lots of other fine sfnal content, as usual.

Fantasy Evening at British Council

From Risingshadow: an evening of fantasy at the British Council Finland on October 29, featuring fantasy writers Angie Sage, Seita Parkkola, Anne Leinonen, Eija Lappalainen, and Viivi Hyvönen.

Free admission, but the amount of attendees is limited—contact Sari Tuomaala (040 197 3997) if you want to go and for more information.

Turku Book Fair 2010

The Turku International Book Fair started today. This year we have a special sfnal guest: to celebrate the publication of the Finnish edition of Ink, Hal Duncan is visiting Turku. You can meet him, along with many other interesting writers, today at the “Book Fair Evening Mass”, organized by the Like, Sammakko, and Savukeidas publishers, at Club Dynamo (from 7 PM onward).

Hal will also, naturally, be at the Book Fair. Below are some examples of the many interesting program items you can see this weekend:

Saturday

• 10:30 Boris Hurtta interview (Fiore-lava)
• 11:30 Boris Hurtta at the TSFS booth
• 12:10 Comics creators on stage / Ilkka Heilä, Pentti Jarla, and Juba Tuomola
  
• 13:00 Pekka Manninen at the TSFS booth
• 13:30 Turbator show / Boris Hurtta, Juri Nummelin, Petri Laine, Petri Salin, and others (Turku-lava)
  
• 13:50 Hal Duncan interview (Agricola-lava)
• 14:30 Myths in the arts (kokoustila 3)
  
• 15:00 Like & TSFS sf seminar “Spotlight on Hal Duncan” (kokoustila 1–2)
• 15:45 Hal Duncan signing at the Like / Rosebud booth
  
• 16:00 Hal Duncan kaffeeklatch at the TSFS booth
• 16:30 Limits of political humor in literature / Pertti Jarla & others (kokoustila 3)
  

Sunday

• 11:00 Women’s comics morning (Agricola-lava)
  
• 11:00 Jukka Laajarinne interview (Fiore-lava)
• 11:50 Jani Saxell (& others) interview (Fiore-lava)
• 13:10 Pertti Jarla interview (Arktinen Banaani)
  
• 14:00 The roots of Finnish horror literature (kokoustila 1–2)
• 14:50 Astronomy in Turku (Porthan-lava)
• 16:10 Kalevala and pop culture (Porthan-lava)

The full program (in Finnish) can be found on the Book Fair site.

Boris Hurtta Gets Critics Award

The Finnish Critics’ Association has given its “kilon punnus” acknowledgement award to Boris Hurtta, a versatile author of several novels, short stories and fact articles. Hurtta has written many kinds of books from horror and adventure to role playing games, travelogues, and histories. He’s also an author of numerous articles, among others about early Finnish fantasy literature, the monasteries of Meteora, and second-hand book stores in Turku. He’s a known bibliophile and a very well-liked person in the Turku cultural circles.

The Apex Book of World SF Vol II

The Apex book company has announced the TOC of the second volume in the Apex Book of World SF series. Among many familiar names (if you’ve been following the world sf scene lately), such as Fábio Fernandez, Nnedi Okorafor, or Ekaterina Sedia, (and many more that at least I’m not familiar with yet) is one very familiar to us Finns: the collection features Hannu Rajaniemi’s short story Shibuya no Love. That story is kind of special to me—I originally read it in Futurismic (if memory serves), and liked it so much I wanted to share it with people. This lead to me starting my current fanzine, Turu Mafia Zine, that published the aforementioned story in the first issue (with the author’s permission, of course).

The Apex Book of World SF, vol. II will be published in mid-2011. Check it out!