Bo Carpelan first to win Finlandia Literature Prize twice

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Author Bo Carpelan made history on Thursday by being the first writer to have won the prestigious Finlandia Literature Prize on two separate occasions. This year's winner was chosen from a short-list of six works by the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, Paavo Lipponen.
     
The Swedish-speaking author received the prize, which carries a cash award of EUR 26,000, for his novel Berg (originally published by Schildt), which describes the return - fifty-five years on - of a wartime child refugee to the large country house where he was taken to safety as bombs fell on Helsinki in the summer of 1944.
      In 1993, Carpelan won the Finlandia Prize for his novel Urwind.
     
In his speech, Paavo Lipponen praised Bo Carpelan's creative ability and said that the rich language of the prize-winning novel left a strong impression on him, and that the work definitely belongs to the canon of world literature.
      After reading both the Swedish and Finnish versions of the book, Lipponen also praised translator Oili Suominen for the Finnish translation of the novel, published this summer by Otava under the title Kesän varjot ("Shadows of Summer").
     
In his speech on receiving the award, Bo Carpelan noted that for a writer, literature and reading are the best elementary education, giving the author new eyes to see something that he or she has never seen before. He finished his speech by reciting a poem by his late friend Tuomas Anhava, who was a prominent Finnish poet and translator.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finlandia Literature Prize to Helena Sinervo for her first novel (3.12.2004)

Links:
  Finnish Literature Information Centre: Bo Carpelan
  Unesco Culture Sector, Bo Carpelan: Urwind

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