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The Einari Vuorela Poetry Prize

The Einari Vuorela Poetry Prize, established by the City of Keuruu in 1997, is awarded to a writer for a distinguished collection of poetry in Finnish.

The €8,500 award is a tribute to our country’s poets, poetry and language. The prize is awarded every three years and is funded by the Einari Vuorela Fund.

The current poetry prize was preceded by the Korpirastas relief prize, which had been awarded every three years since 1992 by the Einari Vuorela Society and which has now been merged with the new prize. The Einari Vuorela Society acts as the City of Keuruu’s practical partner in the administration of the poetry prize.

The next Einari Vuorela Poetry Prize will be awarded in 2026, and the winner will be announced on 13 September 2026 at the Korpirastas celebration.

The honorary chair of the award is Professor Anto Leikola, one of the award’s founders. The patron
of the award is Malla Kuuranne, a voice artist, lecturer in speech and professor emerita at the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy.

The award has been sponsored by, among others, Mrs Jenni Haukio, Mrs Eeva Ahtisaari and former Speaker Riitta Uosukainen.

The award is open to poetry collections in Finnish published between 2023 and 2025, which must be submitted by 26 January 2026.

Jury:
Penjami Lehto, lecturer and critic;
Johanna Venho, writer;
Jukka Koskelainen, writer and critic

Leena Jaatinen, Secretary to the Awards Committee, Event Coordinator

For further information, please
contact Heli Peltola on 040 827 2753, heli.peltola@keuruu.fi or
Leena Jaatinen on 040 510 6699, leena.jaatinen@keuruu.fi

THE EINARI VUORELA POETRY PRIZE

RULES 2026

  1. The prize is awarded by the City of Keuruu.
  2. The prize is awarded to an author for a published, distinguished collection of poetry in Finnish.
  3. The prize is awarded every three years. The prize money amounts to €8,500.
  4. The winner is selected by the judging panel.
  5. Three copies of each work submitted for consideration must be sent to the judging panel as they are published, and no later than 26 January 2026. Submitted works will not be retu ed.
  6. Each author may submit one work. Works published between 2023 and 2025 are eligible.
  7. The judging panel will select five shortlisted works from among the entries, and the work receiving the majority of votes will be awarded the prize. The shortlisted works and the reasons for the decisions will be announced on 6 June 2026.
  8. The award will be presented at the Korpirastas celebration in Keuruu, which begins at 1 pm on 13 September 2026.
  9. Discussions or votes held during the judging panel’s meetings will not be made public.
  10. The committee may thus decide on the procedures itself.

THE EINARI VUORELA POETRY PRIZE

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS

Publishers and authors wishing to nominate a work they have published for the Einari Vuorela Poetry Prize must submit the work by the deadline of 26 January 2026, using the following distribution method:

Delivery address:

Town of Keuruu, Cultural Services, Multiantie 5, 42700 Keuruu

We hope that the works will be sent to us as and when they are published.

Items cannot be retu ed.

The judging panel does not provide feedback or assessments of individual entries.

1997 Ilpo Tiihonen, Muusa, (WSOY 1994)

2000 Jukka Koskelainen, A Description of a Battle (Tammi 1997)

2005 Jouni Inkala, *Unwritten* (WSOY 2002)

2008 Johanna Venho, One Big Party (WSOY 2006)

2011 Saila Susiluoto, Carmen (Otava 2010)

2014 Pauliina Haasjoki, Hair (Otava 2013)

2017 Olli Heikkonen, The Theory of the Smallest Things (Tammi 2015)

2020 Kristian Blomberg, In All Silence (Poesia 2019).

2023 Sirpa Kyyrönen: Your Name Is Marjatta (Otava 2020) & Jussi Hyvärinen: The Olduvai Gorge (Kulttuurivihkot 2022)

Einari Vuorela

Einari Vuorela was bo in Jukojärvi, Keuruu, in 1889 to Aapeli and Stiina Vuorela. The budding poet began his education at the village school in Multia. At the urging of his uncle, a teacher, the shop assistant went on to attend the Jyväskylä Teacher Training College. *The Flute Player*, the primary school teacher’s first collection of poems, was published in 1919. A life as a freelance writer opened up for Einari Vuorela a few years later. This nomadic lifestyle is also reflected in the poet’s work. The poet found a life partner in the cantor’s daughter. The writer Laura Soinne-Vuorela and the poet Einari Vuorela had a daughter. Varpu-Liisa also features in many of the poems from that period. For Vuorela, life as a freelance writer came to an end after the war. He taught pupils at the Jukojärvi primary school in his home village of Keuruu. Upon retirement, the Vuorelas moved to Iloniemi in Tuusula. The poet Einari Vuorela died in Helsinki on 10 July 1972. He was buried in the Old Church cemetery in his native Keuruu.

AWARDS
State Literature Prize –21, –34 and –37
KS Prize –39
Linnakoski Prize -44
SK Recognition Award -64
Aleksis Kivi Foundation Award -48
Eino Leino Society Award -66 Honorary
Doctorate in Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä

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