Seppo Kurki (center) with actress Julie Michaels and judge Jerry Pournelle.

          The short story “Origami Cranes” was the second entry from Seppo Kurki, a native of Finland, to L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.  Seppo received a masters degree in creative writing from the University of South Alabama in 2001, and he is on the pursuit of a career in writing, hoping to “one day in the near future” gather his short stories, novels, poems and screenplays from underneath a pile of dust and start actively looking for places to have them published.  He is currently in the process of relocating to Tokyo, Japan.

           Seppo credits his interest in writing to comics and books read at an early age, his overtly imaginative brain, the opportunity for having learned several languages while growing up, and a multitude of teachers that have helped and encouraged him on his journey.

           Besides literature, his interests include watching movies and car racing, playing with his cat Chibuli, and listening to electronic music. His perhaps greatest regret in life is never having learned to skate properly, hence missing out on becoming a professional ice hockey goalie, an activity he must therefore pursue only in his waking dreams, firmly keeping his two feet on the ground—to the extent a science fiction enthusiast is capable of doing that.