We are so thrilled to announce that Juhani Karila’s hilarious, widely (and wildly!) beloved debut Fishing for the Little Pike was awarded the Lapland Literature Prize today!
The chooser, documentary film maker and a professor of Arts Virpi Suutari stated about the novel:
“The author has created an entirely separate universe with the order of its own, where one effortlessly travels through entities of a varying scale: from the stratosphere to the anatomy of midges. [Karila’s] work succeeds in being, at the same time, realistic but carnivalesque and fairytale-like; gushing, but also laconic.”
Lapland Literature Prize is given every second year for the best fiction title either set in Lapland or written by an author born in Lapland or currently living there. The prize is jointly funded by Lapland’s libraries. Additionally, the audience is invited to vote for their favourite among the nominees: the prize itself is 3000 euros and the winner of the public vote is rewarded a symbolic sum of 500 euros. Among the previous winners is a well-known Finnish author Rosa Liksom.
A true dark horse of 2019, Fishing for the Little Pike has also won the prestigious Jarkko Laine Literature Prize, Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize and Tähtifantasia Prize, and was nominated for the Tolkien Society in Finland Literary Prize.
5 editions were sold out in Finland, foreign rights have so far been sold to 6 territories, including German, World French and others, and in November, Karila was our podcast guest discussing myths in Finland and about Finland – and handling it so charmingly, that the episode even gained international attention.
On top of the enormous success of the book, Karila was just recently named the Journalist of a Periodical of the Year. He was described as someone with the “ability to observe himself and his surroundings, giving a fresh perspective to the familiar, as well as explaining complicated concepts and even, partly, offering solutions”.
Congratulations to the author!