Translation Grants and New Awards for our Bestselling Authors!

We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. What a perfect time to read and consider award-winning and internationally bestselling Finnish authors and their works for your 2021/2022 lists! In April, both FILI translation grants and Creative Europe Grants can be applied:

FILI translation grant application is open! Apply for the translation grants and production grants before May 1st.
More information here: FILI Grants.

The Creative Europe grants can be applied until May 5th!
More information here: Creative Europe Grants.


We would like to congratulate nonfiction author Mia Kankimäki who was awarded with Otava Book Foundation’s Award. This annual award is worth 15.000€, and is given to authors who have significantly contributed to Finnish literature in their respective genres.

Both Kankimäki’s narrative nonfiction books, The Things That Make One’s Heart Beat Faster (2013) and The Women I Think About at Night (2018),  have been bestsellers in Finland, and the foreign rights have been sold to over 15 countries.

The Women I Think About at Night will be published in the US in December by Simon & Schuster.


Congratulations to Maria Turtschaninoff, whose YA novel Maresi Red Mantle has been awarded with the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative’s Translated YA Book Award 2020. The book is published in the UK by Pushkin Press. Its US edition, published by Abrams Books, is titled Red Mantle.

Maresi Red Mantle is a stirring epistolary novel that presents a young woman caught between two homes, cultures, and communities. It is the concluding title in the Red Abbey Chronicles trilogy, but we were very impressed with how beautifully it works as a stand-alone title.” – Committee Chair Annette Y. Goldsmith.

The book is part of The Red Abbey Chronicles trilogy, which has been sold to 22 territories, and there’s a feature film under development by Film4/The Bureau, but can be read as a standalone as well.


We would also like to congratulate Magdalena Hai, who was also granted Otava Book Foundation’s Award of 15.000 € for children’s authors. She is known for her humorous, but gentle books for all ages. She has written picture books, middle grade and YA novels and won numerous awards. Her chapter book series The Little Shop of Nightmares has been sold to 14 territories. Her upcoming middle-grade novel “Miss Swift’s Weird and Wonderful House” will be published in summer 2020 and it has already gathered excitement around the world.

About author


Magdalena Hai

Magdalena Hai is an award-winning author, lover of cross-genre fiction and all things strange. Her fiction often combines elements of sci-fi, fantasy and horror.

Her Little Shop of Nightmares series has been sold to 30 territories around the world. Among Hai's many accolades are winning the Finlandia Prize for children's and YA literature and the Finnish Literary Export Prize, and being nominated  the Nordic Council Children & Young People's Literature Prize.

Besides being an author, Hai teaches writing and is an active member and editor in the publishing co-operative Osuuskumma.

About author


Maria Turtschaninoff

Maria Turtschaninoff is known for crafting lyrical, historically inspired fantasy stories starring strong female protagonists. In addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, she counts Philip Pullman, Ursula K. Le Guin and C.S. Lewis among her favorite authors. She is a two-time winner of the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, winner of the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, winner of the Thank You for the Book Award, a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2020-2024), and winner of the 2014 Finlandia Junior Prize.

Her Red Abbey Chronicles YA trilogy has been sold into 30 languages, while her first adult novel Inherited Land has been sold to 23 territories. Maria has a Master of Arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer.

About author


Mia Kankimäki

Mia Kankimäki is the author of two best-selling books which blend travelogue, memoir, biography, and women’s history. After taking a master’s degree in comparative literature at the University of Helsinki and working diligently in Finnish publishing, in 2010 she left her job and traveled to Japan to write her first book. Her books have received several literary awards, for example the Best Travel Book of the Year 2013, the HelMet Award 2015, and Otava Book Foundation’s Non-Fiction Award 2020. She currently lives in Helsinki, Finland, whenever she’s not traveling for her next book project.

Mia has been enthusiastic about Japanese culture for years and is a qualified ikebana teacher of the Sogetsu school. Her first book Things That Make One’s Hear Beat Faster took her to Kyoto where she has spent long periods of writing and making research ever since. Kankimäki’s second book The Women I Think About at Night has sold over 55,000 copies in Finland and the translation rights have been sold to 21 territories, including USA and China.

Mia's both books have been aqcuired by Japanese publisher Soshisha:

"I am delighted to share that Mia Kankimäki’s debut title, THINGS THAT MAKE ONE’S HEART BEAT FASTER, is embraced and loved by many Japanese readers. A cross between an autobiography and a travelogue, the author finds an emotional connection with a woman geographically far apart and from a different era and tries to discover who she really was. I believe this style is reflected in THE WOMEN I THINK ABOUT AT NIGHT as well. Though some of the female figures in this second book might not be well-known locally, I am looking forward to seeing how our readers will react to their lifestyles." - Daisuke Watanabe, Editor, Soshisha