Emmi Itäranta (b. 1976) is a Finnish author who writes fiction in Finnish and English. Her novels have been characterised as lyrical dystopias with strong ecological undercurrents. Itäranta’s award-winning debut novel Memory of Water (2014) has been translated into more than 20 languages and a film adaptation, The Guardian of Water, is in production. The novel was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Golden Tentacle Award as well as being included in the Otherwise Award honor list and among the finalists of Premio Salerno Libro d’Europa.
Itäranta has also published two other novels, The Weaver (US title) / The City of Woven Streets (UK title) (2016) and The Moonday Letters (Finnish edition Kuunpäivän kirjeet, 2020). The awards won by her books include Kalevi Jäntti Prize for young authors, Young Aleksis Kivi Prize, HelMet Readers’ Choice Award, Kuvastaja Award for the best Finnish fantasy book, Tampere City Literary Award and Tähtivaeltaja Award for the best science fiction book published in Finland.
Itäranta lived in the United Kingdom for 14 years before relocating back to Finland in 2021. She now lives in Tampere, Finland, and continues to write in two languages.
