Nordic Authors You Should Know at Scandinavia House continues with a focus on Finnish literature with Selja Ahava, Rosa Liksom, Johanna Sinisalo, and Antti Tuomainen, moderated by author and translator Lola Rogers. The event will begin with short readings of each of the authors’ work in both English and in Finnish, followed by interviews with the authors and a conversation on Finnish literature today.

Please send audience questions ahead of the discussion to info@amscan.org. Select questions will be chosen for a Q&A following the conversation. Registration is required; please sign up at the link above.

The program will be presented live and will later be available to stream from YouTube and Facebook. Nordic Authors You Should Know will continue with more events throughout the fall.

Support by FILI-Finnish Literature Exchange.

Media support for the series is provided by the journal EuropeNow, published by the Council for European Studies at Columbia University.

Selja Ahava is a fiction author and scriptwriter. Her debut novel, The Day the Whale Swam through London (Eksyneen muistikirja) was awarded the Laila Hirvisaari Prize in 2010. Her second book, Taivaalta tippuvat asiat (Things that Fall from the Sky) explores the unexpected and inexplicable nature of reality. Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2016, its translation rights have been sold to 25 territories and the English version was published by Oneworld in April 2019 in translation by Emily and Fleur Jeremiah. Her autobiographical novel Before my Husband Disappears (Ennen kuin mieheni katoaa) came out in 2017, followed by her latest novel The Woman who Loved Insects (Nainen joka rakasti hyönteisiä), which has just been published in Finland. The book examines metamorphoses, both in insect life and the lives of fictional characters.

Rosa Liksom is an expert on people who live in unconventional circumstances, on the borders of cultures. Born in Lapland, Finland, to parents who were farmers and reindeer breeders, she moved to the capital Helsinki at the age of 17. She spent her youth occupying buildings and living in squats and communes throughout Europe. She is able to conjure up an entire human destiny with a few, carefully chosen brushstrokes.Her unique writing has earned her awards such as the Finlandia Literary Prize and her books have been translated to 18 languages. Rosa Liksom is a writer, photographer and filmmaker who, in her own words, sees all kinds of art as a way of life – simply because she enjoys it so much.

Johanna Sinisalo is one of Finland’s most successful and internationally acclaimed authors. Praised by readers and critics alike, she has won several literary prizes, among them the Finlandia Prize in 2000 and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2004. Johanna Sinisalo has been nominated for the Prix Escapades 2012, the Star Traveller (Tähtivaeltaja) award in 2014 and the Nebula Award in 2008. Her works have been translated into 19 languages.

Antti Tuomainen is one of Finland’s most acclaimed and award-winning crime fiction writers. To date, Tuomainen’s works have been translated into more than 25 languages. Crowned “The King of Helsinki Noir,” Tuomainen’s piercing and evocative style has never stopped evolving. In The Man Who Died, Tuomainen displays a new side of his authorship and unveils his multifaceted ability in full. The novel, which combines Tuomainen’s trademark suspense with a darkly tinged humor, has won the hearts of readers and critics alike, and secured him the new title of King of Noir Comedy.

Lola Rogers is a full-time freelance  translator living in Seattle. She has translated literary and speculative fiction, historical novels, comic novels and crime novels, and contributed translations of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to a variety of journals and anthologies.

Lola’s translations include works by Rosa Liksom, Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, Johanna Sinisalo, and Sofi Oksanen. Her translation of Oksanen’s novel When the Doves Disappeared was a nominee for the 2016 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and Sinisalo’s The Core of the Sun won the 2017 Prometheus Award.