Month: July 2023

Märta Tikkanen, whose work has strongly focused on equality and women’s rights over several decades, has been awarded a prize for her life’s work by the Kvinnosaksförbundet Unionen / Naisasialiitto Unioni, the Finnish branch of the International Alliance of Women.

The news has been published on Hufvudstadsbladet, the leading Swedish-language newspaper in Finland.

Tikkanen is a prolific and wildly successful author: The Love Story of The Century, a novel about the struggles of a woman whose husband falls into alcoholism, became an instant undisputed classic of Finnish literature on its debut in 1978 and has sold over 140.000 copies in Sweden alone.

She had already made waves with Manrape (1975), the story of a woman who decides to take revenge on her rapist. The book, now an established classic, was considered something of a scandal when it first came out, but has since paved the way for writing about gender and sexual violence in fiction.

Fantastic news for our author Niillas Holmberg: he has been awarded the Eino Leino Prize 2023.

The Eino Leino Prize, established in 1956, is a yearly prize awarded to top-notch writers with a specific focus on poetry. The jury has chosen Holmberg as this year’s winner for his merits as multilingual poet and political activist:

“Niillas Holmberg keeps his native language alive and contributes to its growth. He writes about nature and globalization with great insight, describing things that no other language has words for. His multilingualism is for him an advantage and it enriches both of the languages he uses“.

Holmberg’s engagement in political and environmental questions is also praised as an example of art being at the service of activism without being dependent on it: Holmberg’s love for his home landscapes shines through in a way that captures the reader.

Niillas Holmberg is a Sami author, poet, musician, actor, and cultural and environmental activist living in his native Utsjoki, in Lapland. His works have been praised for their multilingualism, originality and their portrayal of Sami culture.

Underfoot, his collection of poems that explores the connection between people and earth, was praised both in Finland and abroad, and has been sold to Estonia and Germany.

Halla Helle, his debut novel, portrays a young man from Southern Finland, Samu, and his fascination with Elle, a Lappish artist, that prompts him to travel to Lapland. The book has been praised for its compelling style and it is also the first novel published in decades that is written by a Sámi author dealing with Sámi identity and culture. The rights have been sold to France, where it will be published by Éditions du Seuil.

Warm congratulations to the author!

Fantastic news for our children’s list: A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large has been sold to Poland, where it will be published by Dwie Siostry, a highly acclaimed Warsaw-based publishing house specialised in high-quality children’s literature.

This is the 14th foreign sale for the title: this stunning story by Amanda & Sofia Chanfreau, where magical realism meets the quest after one’s own origins has been enchanting publishers all over the world since its release and, on top of having sold over 10.000 copies in Finland, it has also won the most important literary award in the country, the Finlandia Junior Prize, in 2022 and is currently nominated for the Nordic Council Children’s and Young People’s Literature Prize.

This illustrated novel for middle grade readers is a tale of longing to be part of a family, to find one’s place in the world, and to be loved as one is. 

Whenever ten-year-old Vega, who has always lived with her father, tries to ask about her mother, the only answer she gets is mysteries. Once a not-so-nice girlfriend starts dating her father, and Vega gets an unexpected pen pal, she decides to set out on an adventure to find out more about her mother. The book is a superb read for a child alone or for parents and children together.

In Finland, the Chanfreau sisters are also published by Schildts & Söderströms.

Warm congratulations to the authors, and don’t miss out on this wonderful title!