Apply for FILI Translation and Printing Grants until February 1st!

FILI’s translation and printing grant application period has been open since 1st of January and will last until February 1st.

It’s a perfect time to acquire exciting Finnish titles and apply for translation grants!

  • Don’t have a Finnish title in your list yet? Browse our Digital rights guide and request materials.
  • Don’t have a Finnish translator? Find them here!

Below you can see some of our featured titles for you to consider in your 2022-2023 lists.


ABOUT THE FILI GRANTS

In the last application period in Fall 2021, 129 projects earned a grant with nearly 250 000€ awarded: See previously awarded projects here!
Translation grants
Up to 70% of translation costs from Finnish or Finland-Swedish can be covered by a FILI translation grant. There are 3 application periods in a year, and the fall application period is 1.10.-1.11.2021.

Printing grants
If you are publishing translations of Finnish picture books or comics, you can apply for up to 1000€ printing cost grant.


HIGHLIGHTS: See some of our most exciting titles below and also at: catalogue.ahlbackagency.com 


FICTION:

THIS TRANSPARENT HEART by Katja Kallio

Young Beata returns home to war-torn Hanko in the winter of 1942. When she accidentally encounters a prisoner of war who sees directly into her innermost being, life changes irreversibly. Forbidden love puts Beata and Ivan at risk for their lives, but they can’t stay apart. In the moment of reckoning, Beata has to ask herself whether one can ever truly know their beloved – or even themselves.

A stirringly beautiful and intimate description of hatred and its only counterforce –  the connection between people.

A passionate novel about the forbidden love of a misfit woman and a Soviet prisoner of war

Reading materials: English sample & synopsis
FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLY by Martta Kaukonen

An addictive psychological thriller in the spirit of Gillian Flynn!
Ida, 20, a serial killer who was abducted as a child, starts therapy with celebrity therapist Clarissa. Only one of them knows that they share a mutual secret from the past. Will the other one realize it before she gets murdered?

Clarissa is a middle-aged psychotherapist, the best in her field. She is familiar to everyone from her TV appearances and from glossy magazines. For her, every patient is a princess. And someone only she can save. Or can she? Clarissa already has one suicide to answer for; a teenage boy’s death never seizes to haunt her.

When Ida becomes Clarissa’s patient, a cat-and-mouse game begins in which rules are followed by no one. The kind of game that never ends well.

Reading materials: English sample & synopsis

NONFICTION:

THE STORY OF AINO AND ALVAR AALTO by Heikki Aalto-Alanen

The love story of the world-famous, pioneering design couple Aino and Alvar Aalto, written by the Aaltos’ grandsonAlvar Aalto and his wife Aino are internationally celebrated for their architecture, furniture, glassware and other interior design, but their personal lives have been relatively unknown – until now. This book, written by the Aaltos’ grandson, contains photos, sketches, and personal letters between Aino and Alvar beautifully illustrating how inseparable this couple was both in work and love.

In addition to the photographs from the family archive, the book is illustrated with Aino’s and Alvar’s drawings of each other and of their children, along with architectural drawings and photographs.

Reading materials: English sample

YOUNG ADULTS:
IN THE DARK I CAN BE YOURS by Salla Simukka

If your love can only be a secret, will it last?
Varpu and Saga are two sixteen-year-old girls that are forced to stay in their hometown for the summer. After just one drunken kiss, prejudice and identity are shattered and it’s revealed how behind the facade, everyone hurts and loves the same. In The Dark I Can be Yours is a touching and beautiful title about great emotions in the summer.

The authentic characters are supported by Simukka’s light and airy narrative. Each side of the book tells one girl’s story, which effortlessly melts together into a summer of love, insecurities, and exploration of two young people.
Reading materials: English manuscript & synopsis

NORDIC HORROR series by A.R.S. HorkkaTake your run-of-the-mill Nordic country full of down-to- earth people living in a welfare state ranked the happiest in the world for 4 years running. Now consider the long, dark winters and the mythologies they breed. Next, add a dash of mystery, a touch of the supernatural, and a drop of murder. As a finishing touch, layer on frigid mists and a pervasive, creeping eeriness, and you end up with the perfect Nordic Horror series!

Nordic Horror is an anthology series. Each novel introduces a new main character with a fast-paced, original, and fun- to-read plot from a different horror subgenre with a Nordic twist. Above all, each story is an honest and emotional study of its protagonists – of the fears that have made them who they are and how they still have to face their biggest fear of all, no matter what monstrous shape it takes on.

The first season of seven books has already been acquired by Tammi in Finland, and the first book, The Shivering, will be published in 2022.

Reading materials: English long synopses and series introduction

MIDDLE GRADE:
Mabel Merryweather Series by Noora Kunnas, illustrated by Teemu Juhani

Book 3: Mabel Merryweather and the Cheesy Mystery

Mabel Merryweather’s friend Bruno and his goats have arrived from Switzerland to perform at the Dalton cheese festival. This fragrant event has attracted a lot of people to the venue, but for the horror of the townspeople, mysterious holes have started to appear on streets and courtyards at night. Who digs them – and why? The rumor spreads that the town is infested by aliens, but Lily, Nick, and the mighty grandmother Mabel Merryweather don’t believe the gossips. With the help of yodeling goats, they dig up the truth.
Book 2: Mabel Merryweather and the King of the Thieves
In Book 2 Nick and Lilly are back at Uncle Jim’s – but that’s okay because it means more adventures with Mabel Merrywether. This time Dalton town is celebrating a local poet’s 140th anniversary, and everyone is dressed up as a character from a poem. But amongst the happy people there’s also a gentleman thief who has terrorized art museums all spring. Through many mistakes and misunderstandings Nick and Lilly help the police to catch a thief – and to teach a lesson to a grumpy literary critic.

Book 1: Mabel Merryweather and the Miniature Pirates
Nick and Lilly’s visit to their rule-loving, child-hating uncle turns into an adventure as the children get to know their exiting, eccentric neighbor: Mabel Merryweather. Mabel and her friends are preparing for a flower arrangement competition, when the town is hit by a jeweler thief. Nick, Lilly and Mabel have their own problems as Mabel’s decorative miniature pirates have come to live and are rummaging through the backyards. And what happened to the main judge of the competition – a pop singer Monika who disappeared in the same day?  Something must be done to bring peace and order back to the town of Dalton.

Reading materials: English sample & synopsis