This year’s state translation prize has been awarded to Czech translator Vladimir Piskor. He has translated nearly 30 Finnish literary works into the Czech language.

These include books by major contemporary authors such as Kari Hotakainen, Leena Krohn, Rosa Liksom and Juha Seppälä.

Piskor says he particularly admires the writing styles of Kari Hotakainen and Kristina Carlson, especially last year’s novel Mister Darwin’s Garden.

At the moment, Piskor is busy at work with recent books by Hotakainen and Leena Lander. He has already won a prize from the Czech Translators’ Society for a translation of Finnish author Asko Sahlberg’s novel Feather.

The Ministry of Education and Culture grants the award of 15,000 euros annually to a foreign translator who has helped to spread awareness of Finnish literature abroad. With a few exceptions such as Sofi Oksanen, Arto Paasilinna and Tove Jansson, Finnish fiction remains far less well-known internationally than that of neighbouring Sweden, for instance.