Dominating the burgeoning Finnish science fiction scene in the late 1980s and early '90s (winning a rare back-to-back collection of Atorox prizes for short fiction in the genre), she was also the first to make a breakthrough: bursting the genre barriers.
Sinisalo was awarded the Finlandia Prize for literature in 2000 for her first novel, Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (translated as Not before sundown in 2003).