Riku Korhonen

Riku Korhonen was born in 1972 in Turku, Finland. He studied literature, philosophy and Finnish at the University of Turku. He has worked as a Finnish teacher and a teacher of creative writing at his home university in Turku. Now he works as a full time writer and a columnist. He has published stories and essays in several anthologies and numerous articles in Finnish papers such as Helsingin Sanomat and Image.

He made his literary debut in 2003 and has quickly established himself as one of the central Finnish modern writers. He writes about serious and important topics, but in an entertaining style that brings his narrative skills to the fore. His debut novel, Kahden ja yhden yön tarinoita (Tales from Two and One Nights) won the prestigious Literary Award of Helsingin Sanomat and The Aboa Art Award in 2003. The book is a collection of a little over thirty interconnecting stories that happen in the same suburb. It has been adapted into a stage play by Turku City Theatre.

Korhonen’s second novel, Lääkäriromaani (The First-Aid Book, Sammakko 2008), established him as one of the leading writers of his generation, winning the Kalevi Jäntti prize for young authors. It is a story of an ending love and has the Iraq war as a historical background. In 2010 the novel was awarded with the European Literature Prize. The foreign rights to it have been sold to the Czech Republic, Denmark and Bulgaria.

Korhonen has also written an acclaimed collection of poems, Savumerkkejä lähtöä harkitseville (Smoke Signals for Those Considering Leaving, 2005). His poems are melancholy reflections on love, life, and death.

Korhonen’s latest work Hyvästi tytöt (Farewell, Girls!, Sammakko 2009) refines the trademark style of his highly skillful prose, in which several stories intertwine into one elaborate narrative. The love stories in this book are humorous and often absurd, like pop songs grown up wrong.

Korhonen lives in Turku and has a regular column in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (the biggest newspaper in Finland). Besides literature his interests are pop music, people and nice bars. He is currently writing his fifth book, a novel is due to be published in 2012.