Finlandia Prize shortlist does not include Jari Tervo's Troikka

The shortlist of candidates for this year's Finlandia Literarature Prize was made public on Thursday, and somewhat perversely the main talking-point seemed to be who was not on the list, as much as who was.
      Jari Tervo's novel Troikka (Troika), which has been well received by critics and public alike, was expected to be there or thereabouts, but did not feature in the six works from which Pekka Tarkka - a translator, literary scholar, and former head of Helsingin Sanomat's cultural desk - will make his decision on December 4th.
     
The half-dozen selected works are also notable for the fact that none of them are by authors writing in Swedish.
      It was no surprise that all six are novels, for the Finlandia - once open to all forms of fiction - has been restricted to novelists since 1993, when the current format of a shortlist picked by a panel of three judges was also introduced.
      The six books are Olli Jalonen's 14 solmua Greenwichiin ("14 Knots to Greenwich"), Katri Lipson's Kosmonautti ("Cosmonaut", winner earlier this week of Helsingin Sanomat's own award for the best first work by a new author), Arne Nevanlinna's Marie, Sofi Oksanen's Puhdistus ("Purge", already in the news earlier this year after Oksanen's critical take on the Soviet era in Estonia led briefly to her being dropped from a poetry event in St. Petersburg), Pirkko Saisio's Kohtuuttomuus ("Immoderation"), and Juha Seppälä's Paholaisen haarukka ("The Devil's Fork").
     
Jalonen was a candidate in 1989 and won in 1990. Seppälä has been a candidate twice before.
      For Pirkko Saisio, this is her sixth time in the frame, including a win in 2003. She has been a candidate with three different publishers, and now most recently with the new publishing house of Siltala, for whom this is a first Finlandia Prize prospect.
      At 83, former architecture professor Arne Nevanlinna is the oldest candidate, and Marie is his first-ever completely fictional work.
     
The Finlandia Prize, which carries a cash award of EUR 30,000, has been in existence since 1984.
      There are also two other awards bearing the same name - the Finlandia Junior for children's literature, and the Tieto-Finlandia for non-fiction.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Directors from publisher WSOY taking authors with them to new company (18.2.2008)
  Sofi Oksanen invited to St. Petersburg poetry evening after all (12.8.2008)
  Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize goes to doctor-writer Katri Lipson (13.11.2008)
  Sofi Oksanen novel to be translated into Russian (6.11.2008)

See also:
  Artist Hannu Väisänen wins prestigious Finlandia Literature Prize (5.12.2007)

Links:
  Finlandia Prize (Wikipedia)