The annual award recognises the most outstanding promoters of Polish literature and culture abroad — translators, publishers or critics.
The prize was presented at a gala ceremony on the second day of the World Congress of Translators of Polish Literature in Kraków, southern Poland.
Grzegorz Jankowicz, director of the Book Institute, said that thanks to Kärkkäinen, "Polish literature is present in Finland today, not only in bookstores but also on theatre stages."
He added that the translator's "commitment to bringing Polish culture closer to Finns also includes his own books, notably guides to the cultural heritage of Warsaw and Kraków."
Born in 1962, Kärkkäinen has translated books by Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, Ryszard Kapuściński, Hanna Krall, Andrzej Sapkowski, Bruno Schulz, Wojciech Szabłowski and Wojciech Tochman, as well as stage plays by, among others, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Sławomir Mrożek and Tadeusz Słobodzianek.
His translation of Tokarczuk's Bieguni (English title: Flights) won him the Mikael Agricola Prize, a prestigious Finnish literary award.
Past recipients of the Transatlantyk Prize include Anders Bodegård (Sweden), Albrecht Lempp (Germany), Ksenia Starosielska (Russia), Bill Johnston (United States), Lajos Pálfalvi (Hungary), Antonia Lloyd-Jones (United Kingdom), Ewa Thompson (Poland) and Tokimasa Sekiguchi (Japan).
(mk/ał)
Source: Polish Book Institute