Loukko by 
SNOWSINGER by Emmi Itäranta has been awarded the Tampere City Literary Prize! Congratulations Emmi!
The Tampere City Literary Prize is awarded to authors from Tampere or to publications with a Tampere theme that are works of fiction or other creative literature. The City of Tampere has awarded literary prizes since 1944.
“Emmi Itäranta’s Snowsinger is a successfully modernized take on the Kalevala that breaks out from the level of fiction into real societal debate. Written in a sensitive and beautiful style, this fresh interpretation builds a multilayered fantasy from the world of the Kalevala, whose strong female perspective is timely and relevant in our own era as well.”
The committee for rewarding creative literary work, appointed by the City Board, selects the prize-winning works from literature published during the year. The prize is awarded without competition, at the committee’s discretion, and the committee must familiarize itself sufficiently with the literature in question.
Snowsinger recently also won the Blogistania Finlandia Award for best fiction book of 2025. The book has been nominated for the Runeberg prize and Tähtifantasia award.
DOWNLOAD MATERIALS FOR SNOWSINGER HERE
The enchanting origin story of Louhi, the witch queen of Pohjola from the Finnish national epic Kalevala. Emmi Itäranta’s award-winning debut novel Memory of Water (2012) is a classic and an international hit: published in 28 territories.
Award-winning author Emmi Itäranta’s latest novel Snowsinger takes the readers to a mythological past, a world of magic and shapeshifting. Harmony and respect reign between humans, nature, and animals. Until the idyll is broken and the lust for power, the desire for revenge, and greed arise.
Lauha is living her childhood in Pohjola where strong women rule, each of them with their spell-shape, or animal form. When Lauha is nine, a foreign tribe attacks Pohjola and kills most of her family, while Lauha flees with her mother and two younger sisters. After many hardships, Lauha ends up in the safety of a women’s forest community known as Metsänpeitto, where she lives silently for years.
After a tragic incident, Lauha decides to have revenge on the conquerors of Pohjola and reclaim her home. Defending Pohjola and keeping her family safe shapes Lauha into Louhi, a woman feared by many. The painful memories of her escape drive Louhi to choices that have fateful consequences to the people of Pohjola and to Louhi herself.
SNOWSINGER
Lumenlaulaja, Teos 2025, 410 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
ESTONIA: Argo
Reading Material:
Full English translation, English synopsis, Finnish PDF
