Emmi Itäranta shortlisted for the Tähtivaeltaja Award

We are thrilled to announce that Emmi Itäranta has been nominated for the Tähtivaeltaja Award 2013 for her debut work, Memory of Water (Teemestarin kirja, Teos 2012). The Helsinki Science Fiction Association yearly elects the most outstanding science fiction book published in Finland.

The other nominees for the Tähtivaeltaja Award 2013 are: Iain M. Banks: Pintakuvio (Surface Detail); Ernest Cline: Ready Player One; Alastair Reynolds: Muistoissa sininen maa (Blue Remembered Earth); and Gene Wolfe: Kiduttajan varjo (The Shadow of the Torturer).

Earlier winners of the Tähtivaeltaja Award include authors such as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, J.G. Ballard’s Super-Cannes, Iain M. Banks’ The Player of Games and Brian Aldiss’ Helliconia Trilogy. This Award is well established and has been given to those outstanding science fiction books since 1986.

Emmi Itäranta’s debut novel has been sold to six languages already, including World English (HarperVoyager), Estonian (Koolibri), Czech (Plus Publishers), German (Reihe Hanser), Italian (Edizioni Piemme) and Turkish (Dogan Egmont).

Please ask the Agency for the full English text written by Emmi Itäranta.

About author


Emmi Itäranta

Emmi Itäranta (b.1976) holds two MA degrees, one in Drama and another in Creative Writing. Her award-winning debut novel Memory of Water (Teemestarin kirja) was published in Finland in 2012 to great accolades, followed by The Weaver (Kudottujen kujien kaupunki) in 2015. Her latest novel The Moonday Letters (Kuunpäivän kirjeet) was published in September 2020.

Itäranta’s writing has been compared to that of Ursula K. Le Guin. Her honours include the Young Aleksis Kivi Prize 2013, the Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize 2012 and first place in the Teos Fantasy and Sci-Fi Literary Contest 2011.

Memory of Water has sold to over 25 languages to date, and it has also been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award recognizing the best science fiction novel published in the UK in 2014, and the Golden Tentacle award. In addition, Itäranta has been included on the Honor List of the Otherwise Award (formerly James Tiptree, Jr. Award).

Itäranta’s CV is an eclectic mix of writing-related activities, including stints as a columnist, theatre critic, press officer and dramaturge. Her poems, short stories, articles and essays have appeared in anthologies, film magazines and science fiction magazines in the UK and Finland. She now lives in Finland after 14 years in the United Kingdom.

Bibliography


2020, Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Moonday Letters

Emmi Itäranta


2015, Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Weaver

Emmi Itäranta


2012, Fantasy & Science Fiction

Memory of Water

Emmi Itäranta