News

Fantastic news for our authors: Ann-Christin Antell’s Cotton Mill Trilogy, Susanna Hast’s Body of Evidence and Marja Kyllönen’s The Undeparted are at the top of FILI’s Book Picks 2023 for adult fiction! Many other HLA authors, including Merja Mäki’s and her novel Before the Birds, also made the list.

For children’s titles, our beloved A Giraffe’s Heart is Unbelievably Large by Amanda & Sofia Chanfreau tops the list, tightly followed by the endearing and successful YA novel We’ll Just Ride Past, by Ellen Strömberg.

This comes at a great time for all these titles: the Cotton Mill Trilogy, a historical romance about three generations of women and their family business, has recently made its 5th foreign sale, and Hast’s Body of Evidence, a startling work of autotheory, has received wide accolade and won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize.

Marja Kyllönen’s The Undeparted, a dark twist on the story of a childless couple, has been awarded the Runeberg Prize, and Merja Mäki’s Before the Birds, a gorgeous story of struggle and hope set in the time of World War II, has been sold to France and Sweden and has been awarded the Torch-Bearer Prize.

A Giraffe’s Heart is Unbelievably Large by Sofia & Amanda Chanfreau has been wildly successful: a Finlandia Junior winner in 2022, its foreign rights have been sold to 14 territories and has received raving reviews. In theYA category, We’ll Just Ride Past, by Ellen Strömberg has been nominated for the 2023 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize and has recently been sold to both Italy and Korea.

Warm congratulations to the authors, and don’t miss out on these titles!

As of September 2023, Viivi Arela will assume the role of CEO at Helsinki Literary Agency, which has built a top-notch catalog of international-caliber literature over the past six years.

Helsinki Literary Agency (HLA) will have a new CEO starting on September 1, 2023, when Viivi Arela assumes the role. Arela has worked for HLA as a literary agent since July 2020.

Urpu Strellman, who has led HLA since its founding in 2017, will shift her focus to author relations, catalog development, and generating and strengthening international contacts.

“In the space of a little over six years, Helsinki Literary Agency has grown into an agency that attracts Finnish authors interested in the global market and whom foreign publishers turn to when they’re interested in Finnish literature,” Strellman says. “At this juncture, it’s vital to ensure the skills of every employee be put to the best possible use.”

“The agency is at an interesting stage in its growth; it has a superb catalog and good networks. I’m eager for the opportunity to further develop operations and continue to promote Finnish literature in export,” Arela says.

Anna Baijars, CEO of Gummerus Publishers and chair of the HLA board, notes: “HLA’s operations have expanded significantly, to the point where a reorganization of roles is necessary to reach our new goals. Viivi Arela’s ambitious and entrepreneurial approach will serve the agency well as she helms it into its next stage.”

Arela has previous experience as an entrepreneur and in sales and marketing in the culture sector.

Urtė Liepuoniūtė, who has been a literary agent with HLA since 2019, will take on a new role on June 30, focusing exclusively on HLA’s English-language literature podcast Literature from Finland. The podcast, which Liepuoniūtė has produced and hosted since 2020, has found popularity both internationally and domestically, and plans for new audiovisual content on Finnish literature are in the works.

Additionally, two new team members, literary agent Chiara Stanziani and assistant Anastasia Basova,joined HLA in spring 2023.

Helsinki Literary Agency is a literary agency jointly owned by the publishing houses Gummerus, Schildts & Söderströms, Siltala, and Teos. It counts eleven Finlandia Prize winners and five Finlandia Junior Prize winners among the authors it represents.

More Information:

Urpu Strellman, CEO | urpu@helsinkiagency.fi | +358 40 737 5535
Viivi Arela, literary agent | viivi@helsinkiagency.fi | +358 40 838 5376
Anna Baijars, chair of the HLA board | anna.baijars@gummerus.fi | +358 40 584 0061

South Korea continues to be enamoured by the Finnish children’s literature: after already acquiring 4 children’s titles from HLA’s list, Korean Studies International has now also bought the Korean language rights for Gorilla, a beautiful picture book written by Miikka Pörsti and illustrated by Anne Vasko.

KSI is one of the many publishers that HLA agents met during their recent trip to Seoul; the house focuses on publishing children’s picture books that promote self-searching, independence, family love, environment, and diversity, among other themes.

Gorilla is an original, funny and moving picture book about feelings and how to deal with them that stresses the importance of friendship. When little Eino gets upset, he literally fall apart to pieces. Eino doesn’t need much to get sad, and now there is a giant Gorilla too, that beats its chest and frightens Eino even more.

But one day, something happens, and Gorilla itself breaks completely; after that everything changes.

This is the second foreign rights deal for the book; Estonian rights have previously been sold to Elust enesest. In Finland, the title was published by S&S.

Congratulations to the authors!

Beautiful news for beautiful books: Forest Field Notes, a picture book written by Johanna Venho and illustrated by Sanna Pelliccioni, has found two new homes abroad, as Vlassis Bros will be publishing it in Greece, and Gato Sueco in the Spanish World.

Gato Sueco is a well-known children’s publisher in Spain, that focuses on titles from the Nordic countries. As the publisher states on their website, “we do not believe that children’s literature has to educate, but rather ask questions, generate reflections and, of course, encourage children to have fun.”

Vlassis Bros was founded in 1964. Its main publishing fields used to be classic literature for adults, history and self-help books. Since 1998, its publishing focus turned towards children books starting with editing and publishing picture books with stories written by a classic Greek author, Gregorios Xenopoulos.

Forest Field Notes is a tender, magical story of the forest and the imagination that can be awakened by nature. It was nominated for the Botnia Prize 2022. The book about the importance of nature in our own surroundings will gain a companion, Travel Field Notes, in 2023. This new addition will guide readers on a rail journey to protect the environment.

The book’s publisher in Finland is Teos.

Congratulations to the authors!

Great news for our children’s titles continue: we are thrilled to announce that The Unicorn, a picture book written and illustrated by Ilja Karsikas, and Under the Moon, another picture book illustrated by Karsikas and written by Aki-Pekka Sinikoski, are now sold to Korean Studies International (KSI), who will publish them in South Korea!

KSI is one of the many publishers that HLA agents met during their recent trip to Seoul; the house focuses on publishing children’s picture books that promote self-searching, independence, family love, environment, and diversity, among other themes.

The publisher has recently acquired two other titles from HLA’s list: Skeleton, a picture book written by Malin Klingenberg and illustrated by Maria Sann; and Night Express, a children’s novel written by Karin Erlandsson and illustrated by Peter Bergting.

This is the first foreign rights sale for The Unicorn, and the second for Under the Moon, which has previously been sold to Estonia (Rahva raamat).

The Unicorn is a warm-hearted picture book about complicated conditions at home, family life and love. It is based on the author’s own memories and childhood experiences in a lovely, caring, completely ordinary family.

Under the Moon is a sensitive and wistful book about the meaning of love, existence and the purpose of life brings to mind children’s classics of world literature like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. In it, the authors create a magical world where sadness, but also beauty and absurdity, have a place. It is a perfect book to read out loud in a family or kindergardens, and discuss the challenges that both children and grown-ups sometimes encounter in their lives.

Congratulations to the authors!