It is the first time in the 33 years history of the award that the longlist is announced, and HLA is proud to see two of its authors on it!
HLA’s authors on the longlist are the Finlandia-winning Pirkko Saisio and her new book Prevarications (Siltala, 2019) and Antti Rönkä and his striking debut novel Off the Ground (Gummerus, 2019).
Runeberg Prize is a prestigeous literary award named after the Finnish national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg. It is one of the most important literary awards in Finland in addition to the Finlandia Prize. It is worth 10,000 euros and given out yearly in two categories: fiction and children’s books.
The shortlist of 5–8 nominees will be announced on 12th of December, and the winner on the 5th of February, 2020.
Earlier this month it was announced that the hilarious children’s verse book The Life of Fart by Malin Klingenberg & Sanna Mander was nominated for the Runeberg Junior Prize.
Congratulations to the authors and wishing all the best in the competition!
The Italian rights of Marcus Rosenlund’s State Award for Information Publication-winning The Weather that Changed the World have been sold to Garzanti in an auction.
Garzanti, the publisher of such bestselling authors as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Truman Capote, Tim Marshall, Peter Wohlleben, Michelle Obama and others, will publish Rosenlund’s non-fiction as their Spring 2021 lead title.
Garzanti stated the book will be a complementing their list that already has a strong focus on history, nature and climate, and that it will continue to draw focus of the public debate to important current issues linked with our history in a similar way as Tim Marshall has done in his works.
In addition to the Italian deal, The Weather that Changed the World has previously been sold to 4 more territories.
We are continuing our creative literary interviews series with HLA’s writers! Mikko Rimminen, whose novel If It Looks Like Ithas just been nominated for the most prestigious literary award of the year, Finlandia Prize, talks about his most complicated yet equally lovable characters and the pleasures of an awarded writer. And of course, the entertaining questionnaire! Read the interview here.
We are continuing our creative literary interviews series with HLA’s writers!MarkoLeppänen and Adela Pajunen, the authors of the vivid and touching Woodland, talk about the incredible qualities of forests and share moving real-life cases of nature effects on people. And of course, the entertaining questionnaire! Read the interview here.
If It Looks Like It, written by one of the most beloved Finnish authors Mikko Rimminen, has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize.
If It Looks Like It is a warm, tragicomic story about a lonely Mr. Lyy. The novel has been praised for its spectacular and unusual use of language, which, along the years, has become a trademark of Rimminen. The author manages to grasp true sadness behind the feelings of guilt and shame and turn it into a joyous and heartfelt experience. As the jury stated:
”The unusual way of narrating, the use of funny neologisms and adjectives as well as immersion in hilarious linguistic games is what makes this book exceptional.”
The author himself said:
”It was an unbelievably complex ride, given that the origins of this story, as well as my aim when I began writing it, were rather simple! Choosing the structure of narration seemed effortless, but – as to balance it out – Mr Lyy turned out to be the most complicated main character ever, and he soon became the subject of my nightmares. While usually my main problem used to be making fictional characters do anything at all, this time, Mr Lyy’s tendency to do everything that turns out to be against him caused me most worry and distress.”
Mikko Rimminen (b. 1975) is a lauded writer who started his literary career as a poet. He has written six novels: Park Life (2004), The Block (2007), Finlandia Prize-winning Red Nose Day (2010), Tag (2013) and The Most Natural Thing in the World (2017). Rimminen’s books have been translated into over ten languages . In 2011, the novel Park Life was turned into a successful movie.
Finlandia Prize is the most important literary award in Finland, given annually in three categories: the best novel, the best children’s or YA book and the best nonfiction book of the year. The award sum is 30,000 euros.
Previously, several other HLA’s authors have received the award in the category of the best novel, including Mikko Rimminen himself (for the novel Red Nose Day, 2010): Kari Hotakainen (The Trench Road, 2002), Pirkko Saisio (The Red Letter of Farewell, 2003), Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Ice, 2012), Riikka Pelo (Our Earthly Life, 2013), Jukka Viikilä (Watercolours from a Seaside City, 2016) and Juha Hurme (Headland, 2017).
