Miki Liukkonen

Miki Liukkonen (1989-2023) made his literary breakthrough with the astonishingly accomplished novel O – an encyclopaedic narrative of ordinary people and extraordinary events, becoming the most talked about literary tour de force in recent years. The novel was shortlisted for the 2017 Finlandia Prize for Fiction, and for the 2018 Runeberg Prize.

Succeeding in commercialising the uncommercial, Liukkonen’s work has been compared to that of David Lynch and David Foster Wallace. Liukkonen was a multi-talented artist, who felt equally at home in music and poetry as he did in literature.

Prizes and nominations

2022, Winner of the Finnish Book Art Committee’s Most Beautiful Book Award (designer Jussi Karjalainen)
2022, Shortlisted for the Botnia Prize 2022
2021, Shortlisted for the Tulenkantaja Prize
2020, Shortlisted for the Tulenkantaja Prize
2018, Shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize
2017, Shortlisted for the Finlandia Prize for Fiction
2017, Shortlisted for the Bothnia Prize
2014, Shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize
2011, Shortlisted for The Best Debut of the Year Prize
2009, Winner of the J. H. Erkko Writing Competition

Fiction

Guest Mode (Vierastila, WSOY 2023)
Life. A Prologue (Elämä: Esipuhe, WSOY 2021)
The Master of Silence (Hiljaisuuden mestari, WSOY 2019)
O (O, WSOY 2017)
Children Under the Sun (Lapset auringon alla, WSOY 2013)

Poetry

The History of Rage (Raivon historia, WSOY 2015)
Elisabet (Elisabet, WSOY 2012)
White Poems (Valkoisia runoja, WSOY 2011)

Works