2024

Rantala, Oskari

This chapter offers an overview of the Finnish short fiction award Atorox, its 40-year history, and the fandom debates around it. Atorox is annually awarded to the best Finnish speculative fiction short story after a vote by active fans around the country. Indeed, the speculative short fiction field in Finland is almost completely run by fans and dominated by magazines published by various fan associations. This has produced an interesting uncommercial literary subculture, and short fiction has remained a prominent part of the speculative fiction scene. The evolution of Atorox award into the institution it is today sheds light on the shifting sensibilities of Finnish SFF (science fiction and fantasy) fans. What does examining the history of the Atorox award and the debates around it reveal about the development of the Finnish short speculative fiction fandom, its current state, and the aspects that set it apart from other national fandoms? The chapter seeks to answer these questions by discussing Atorox-related debates in fan magazines mainly in the 1980s and the early 1990s as well as the ten Atorox-winning short stories from 2011 to 2020. It argues that peculiar aspects of Finnish SFF fandom can be traced to its decentralised nature and strong participatory culture.