Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.

Katri Lipson. Photo: Olli Turunen

The second novel Jäätelökauppias (‘The ice-cream vendor’, Tammi, 2012) by Katri Lipson won her one of the 12 European Union Prizes for Literature this year, announced at the Gothenburg Book Fair, Sweden, on 26 September.

Each winner will receive € 5,000, and the priority to apply for European Union funding to have their book translated into other European languages.

The European Commission, the European Booksellers’ Federation (EBF), the European Writers’ Council (EWC) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) are the organisers of the prize which is supported through the European Union’s culture programme. The competition is open to authors in the 37 countries involved in the Culture Programme.

The prize aims to draw attention to new talents and to promote the publication of their books in different countries, as well as celebrating European cultural diversity.

The previous Finnish winner of the prize was Riku Korhonen in 2010.