Turtschaninoff in Sweden

Maria Turtschaninoff, an Alma Award–nominated Finnish Swede author, announced she will be published in Sweden next year. Congratulations!

Nordic Sf Studies Journal

I was going to wait until there was a website to point to, but since that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, and the news has been out for a while, never mind. FINFAR, the Finnish society for science fiction and fantasy studies (founded this summer) will be launching an academic journal of Nordic sf research. The journal will be published online and the main language is English. It will contain peer-reviewed articles, essays, interviews, opinion pieces and academic book reviews.

The full press release contains more information about the journal and its advisory board, plus a naming contest, and can be found on Adam Roberts’ blog.

Tove Jansson Commemorated in Stamps

To commemorate Tove Jansson’s 100th anniversary she will be getting her own stamps next January. The stamps, designed by Klaus Welp, depict different sides of Tove Jansson, and also the archipelago that was very important to her.

Lokacon

If you’re not going to Swecon this weekend, in Jyväskylä there is a minicon called Lokacon this Saturday. The guests of the con are authors Rjurik Davidson from Australia and Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen from Jyväskylä. The program consists of talks, discussion and a quiz, plus a sauna in the evening.

Karen Lord Comes to Åcon

Åcon 7 has announced the Guest of Honor: Karen Lord comes to Mariehamn next May. Lord is the author of two acclaimed novels, Redemption in Indigo and The Best of All Possible Worlds, and a podcaster (she hosts the excellent SF Crossing the Gulf together with Karen Burnham). She comes from Barbados.

Åcon is a small, English-speaking, literary relaxacon. Åcon 7 takes place May 1–4, 2014 at Hotel Adlon in Mariehamn. Membership is 30 €.

Sf Classification

Author Jussi Katajala is putting together a diagram of several subgenres of fantastic fiction. Not the first of its kind, but interesting anyway, and may be useful to others as well.

Finncon 2015 in Turku

Another thing that was discussed on Sunday (besides the Worldcon bid) was Finncon 2015. No longer on hold because of a possibility of a Worldcon in Finland in 2015, there’s been some initial discussion for a Finncon 2015 in Turku. We’re still in the planning and committee forming stage, but there’s definite interest in holding a Finncon here. We’ve also had lots of interest and support from the rest of the Finnish fandom, and are looking around for possible venues, so things are looking good.

Our plan is to hold a Finncon that will reach out to the international fandom, and to welcome everyone who was looking forward to coming to Finland in 2015 to come to Finncon!

There’s not much to report yet (as I said, still in the planning phase), but you can follow @finncon2015 on Twitter (and this space as well), and we’ll be sure to let you know when we have something more.