This fall, join us for a virtual literary series with the nominees of this year’s Nordic Council Literature Prize! Awarded since 1962 alongside other prizes from the Nordic Council in music, film, and environment, the Literature Prize is selected annually for a work of fiction (poetry, prose, or drama) written in one of the Nordic languages, Created to generated greater interest in the sense of Nordic cultural community and to recognize unique artistic endeavors, each year’s prize is selected by the Nordic Adjudication Committee, made up of two members from each of the Nordic nations.
One of this year’s nominees from Finland, Kaj Korkea-aho’s Röda rummet (Red Room, 2021) follows a young and slightly depressed writer and musician who, growing tired of his poverty as an artist, jokingly places an ad in a local paper offering to write a novel in exchange for a nice apartment.A response comes from someone who appears to be a cross between Hercule Poirot and Mephistopheles; it soon becomes clear that he wants our main character to write a book about him and his desire for submission, in a novel challenges many contemporary notions of power and supremacy, experience and desire.
Korkea-aho will discuss his novel with critic and essayist Sara Abdollahi.
This event will take place as a Zoom webinar; please ask questions in the chat or send them in advance to info@amscan.org. Registration is required; please sign up at the link above. This conversation will be recorded and available later to stream on our Virtual Programming page and on our YouTube channel.
Special thanks to FILI.
About the Speakers
Kaj Korkea-aho is a Finnish-Swedish author, columnist, and comedian. His previously published novels include Se till mig som liten är (2009), Gräset är mörkare på andra sidan (2012), and Onda boken (2015). The latter has been translated into six languages.
Sara Abdollahi is a critic and essayist. She has previously been editor-in-chief of the Swedish Writers’ Association’s magazine. Abdollahi is also an editorial member at SITE and a member of the assessment committee for the Nordic Council Literature Prize.