FILI Grants Fall 2024 open from now until November 1st!

Johanna Holmström

Johanna Holmström is one of the most successful Finnish-Swedish writers of her generation. Her works have been published in over 10 countries.

She made her debut at 21 years old with the short story collection Inlåst och andra noveller in 2003, and was nominated for Sveriges Radio’s award. She had her literary breakthrough in 2009 with her fourth book, the short story collection Camera Obscura, which received both Svenska Dagbladet's literature prize in Sweden and Svenska YLE's literature prize in Finland.

Her novel Asfaltsänglar (2013) has been published in seven countries.  With Själarnas ö (2017), her acclaimed novel centered around women in a mental hospital in the Finnish archipelago from the late 1800s-1962, Holmström was nominated for the prestigious Runeberg Prize in 2018. Her short story collection Handbok i klardrömmar (2022) was the first Finnish-Swedish title to receive the Karin Boye prize in Sweden. Vargens unge (2024) is published by Albert Bonniers.

In her writing, Johanna Holmström explores the darker sides of human nature in a psychologically credible way. She writes about relationships and power structures within the family and society. Holmström is one of Finland's most skilled at environmental portrayal, and for her the environment is at least as central as the characters when it comes to creating drama. She has a narrative drive that few can match, without forgetting to maintain a top class and wayward language.

Kaisu Tuokko

Kaisu Tuokko’s aim is to create a series where interpersonal relationships and the idyll of a small town are mixed with cruel events – using psychological tension to build stories about how badly we know the families or friends of our neighbors, of our loved ones. Everyone has secrets, but some of them are more dangerous than others.

Tuokko loves the stories of strangers, secrets of small towns, rainy autumn evenings, and the Swedish language. She lives in Helsinki, and has named her main character after her grandparents.

Max Seeck, New York Times Best Selling Author

Max Seeck - New York Times Bestselling Author of THE WITCH HUNTER.

Winner of the prestigious Glass Key Award 2023 for his novel THE LAST GRUDGE.

Big Hollywood film & TV news coming soon!

“An exceptional combination of hardboiled Scandi-noir and eerie ghost story. [--] Seeck marries breathtaking suspense with an expertly drawn heroine. This is guaranteed to send shivers up even the most unshakable readers’ spines." – Publisher's Weekly, starred review (Ghost island)

"Each new step has been an artistic success. Max Seeck, last year's winner of the Glass Key Award for best Nordic detective story, has a golden touch for Finnish suspense fiction." - Kai Hirvasnoro, Kansan Uutiset newspaper

“Another star has been added to the firmament of thriller writers,” announced Iltalehti newspaper, when Max’s debut novel was published in 2016. Four books later, Max Seeck’s novels have been sold to more than 40 countries, including US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries and as far as Korea!

His Jessica Niemi series landed him on the New York Times Bestseller list! 2024 will see the release of his independent novel MILO, which is already creating buzz internationally with several rights pre-empts ahead of the Finnish publication!

Max Seeck has a background in sales and marketing, and has lately been able to dedicate his time to his lifelong love of writing. His interests include well-conducted research, reading Nordic Noir and listening to movie soundtracks as he writes.

Riikka Pulkkinen

Riikka Pulkkinen (b. 1980) is one of the top names in Finnish literature. Her debut novel The Limit (2006) gained wide attention, was a bestseller, and was adapted into a play and a TV series in Finland. Her international breakthrough came with her second novel, True (2010), which was the one novel everyone was talking about that year at the Frankfurt book fair. The novel has been published in 17 countries to date.

Pulkkinen’s novels are characterized by the precision with which she describes the psychology of the characters, and the philosophical themes that reflect from the characters into the refined structure of the novels and culminate on the level of the plot. The main questions she explores in her novels concern power, responsibility, and justice.

Pulkkinen has an M.A. in Literary Studies from the University of Helsinki, and she lives in Helsinki with her husband and her two children. She enjoys dancing and running in the forest or by the seaside. If she weren’t a writer, she would be a psychologist or a baker.

For her works, Riikka Pulkkinen has received the Kaarle award in 2007, the Laila Hirvisaari Fund stipend in 2007, the Veijo Meri Award in 2019, and her novel True was nominated for the Finlandia Prize in 2010. Her acclaimed novel Enchantment (Otava, 2022) will be published in English by Scribe in 2026, and her new novel Our Last Game (Otava, 2024) published in Finland in August 2024 is gaining starred reviews.

S. K. Rostedt

S.K. Rostedt aka Saara Rostedt (1993) is an author and marketing professional who grew up in Finland's book capital Sastamala. Now based in Helsinki, she is an avid romantasy reader who loves to spend time in nature and at her summer cabin. She has popular BookTok and Bookstagram social channels, where she talks about her writing and reading experiences. S.K. Rostedt, who gave up reading as a teenager, rediscovered the world of books in her twenties with the help of romantasy, Saara is known in social media as @skrostedt.