It is good to know the basics of the Creative Europe grant for supporting literary translation projects:
Creative Europe grant is a possibility provided by the European Commission to promote inter-European literary translation projects The grant includes funding not only for translations but for the whole project (including marketing, printing, illustrations etc.).
- The grant can fund up to 50% of the project costs (up to 100 000 EUR per project). The other 50% can also be covered by other grants.
- The publisher has to apply for 3-10 books at once
- Projects have to consist of works high literary value, irrespective of their literary genres.
- Translating previous winners of the EU Prize for Literature is encouraged, those projects will get extra points
Read all the rules and apply for the grant here:
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe/funding/support-to-literary-translation-projects-2019_en
Below you will find 7 award-winning high literary value Finnish books that could add a lot of value to your grant application!
My Friend Natalia by Finlandia prize winning author Laura Lindstedt
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/my-friend-natalia/
The long-awaited new novel by Finlandia-prize winner! A bold, and brave novel about young woman’s sexuality, the power of narration, and identity.
Natalia starts to see a therapist to help solve the problems in her sex life. It is clear from the beginning that she is not going to play by the rules of the therapy. The weekly sessions combine art, philosophy, literature, childhood memories, and erotic experiences as a method of treatment, and slowly they make Natalia lose all her inhibitions. She starts to enjoy the therapy – maybe too much?
Rights sold: HUNGARY
Finlandia prize winner: Oneiron by Laura Lindstedt
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/oneiron/
Seven women meet in a white, undefined space seconds after their deaths. Time, as we understand it, has ceased to exist, and all bodily sensations seem to have disappeared. None of the women can remember what happened to her, or how she got there.
Rights sold: WORLD ENGLISH, BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, FRANCE, HUNGARY, ITALY, LITHUANIA, NORWAY, POLAND, ROMANIA, SPAIN, SWEDEN, TURKEY
The Ice Cream Man by Katri Lipson
EU Prize for Literature winner! (extra points in the application)
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/the-ice-cream-man/
This intriguing story takes the reader to Prague and inside the plot of the film ‘Ice Cream Man’. An actress demands to see the script for the film but instead, the director only gives instructions on what to do next.
Rights sold: ALBANIA, BULGARIA, CROATIA, CZECH, DENMARK, ESTONIA, GEORGIA, HUNGARY, LATVIA, MACEDONIA, SERBIA, SPAIN, TURKEY, WORLD ENGLISH
The Bystander by Finland prize winning author Saara Turunen
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/the-bystander/
The Bystander is a new kind of an artist’s novel. At the same time ironic and earnest, it addresses the issues of making art in a world that has changed, when the romantic ideal of the great male artist has not: the novel follows in the footsteps of Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys, still finding its own way. The text shifts between fiction and reality, mixing shame and self-contemptuous humor with sharp narration.
Rights sold: SWEDEN
Finlandia prize winner – They Know Not What Thay Do by Jussi Valtonen
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/they-know-not-what-they-do/
They Know Not What They Do offers readers both piercing psychological acumen and a striking dystopian satire of a neuro-digitalized Western society in which nothing is private and everything is for sale.
Rights sold: CHINA, CZECH REPUBLIC, FRANCE, GERMANY, HUNGARY, LITHUANIA, NETHERLANDS, POLAND, VIETNAM, WORLD ENGLISH
The Core of The Sun by Finlandia prize winning author Johanna Sinisalo
The book is Prometheus Prize ’Best Novel’ winner 2017
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/the-core-of-the-sun/
The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has prioritized social stability and national health, and outlawed practically everything that might give one pleasure or cause addiction. Well, almost everything: the distribution of sex, an essential commodity of pleasure, is made as efficient as possible.
Rights sold: CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, HUNGARY, LATVIA, SPAIN, TURKEY, WORLD ENGLISH
The Weaver by Emmi Itäranta
Emmi Itäranta’s honours include the Young Aleksis Kivi Prize and Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize
http://www.ahlbackagency.com/book/the-weaver/
In The Weaver, human life has little value. You practice a craft to keep you alive, or you are an outcast, unwanted and tainted. Eliana is a young weaver in the House of Webs, but secretly knows she doesn’t really belong there. She is hiding a shameful birth defect that would, if anyone knew about it, land her in the House of the Tainted, a prison for those whose very existence is considered a curse.
Rights sold: BRAZIL, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, HUNGARY, ITALY, JAPAN, US, UK