About

Bio

Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based author and literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potentials of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science.

Her debut novel, Beasts of the Sea (2023) was praised immediately upon its release as a world-class work, one that brings together a lost world and living literature: for it, she won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, the Thank You For the Book Prize, and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the Torch-bearer Prize in Finland and the Premio Strega Europeo in Italy and, Le prix du Meilleur Livre étranger in France, among others. 

Turpeinen is currently working on her second novel as writer-in-residence at the Finnish Museum of Natural History.

Awards

International Award Nominations

The Europese Literatuurprijs/European Literature Prize (Netherlands): shortlist 2026  
Premio Strega Europeo (Italy), shortlist 2025  
Le Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (France), shortlist 2024 

Domestic Awards

Thank You for the Book Award by Finnish booksellers, 2024  
Blogistania Finlandia, 2024  
Storytel Audiobook Award, 2024  
Bookbeat: Domestic Debut of the Year, 2024  
Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, 2023  
J. H. Erkko Writing Competition for Young Authors, 2014

Award Nominations in Finland

Finlandia Prize, 2023  
Torch Bearer Prize, 2023 
Young Aleksis Prize, 2024