Marjo Nygård is an illustrator and graphic designer living in Seinäjoki. In her free time, she is a passionate ceramics enthusiast, an experimental gardener, and a maker of patterned knitwear. Marjo’s illustrations have been published in numerous children’s picture books, educational textbook series, and postage stamps.
Heikala is an illustrator whose illustrations, inspired by Japanese aesthetics, have gained great popularity around the world.
Cara Knuutinen (b. 1965) is a Helsinki-based children’s book illustrator and Master of Arts (University of Art and Design Helsinki) who has worked as an illustrator for over 30 years. She has illustrated more than 20 children’s books, as well as numerous children’s nature books and textbooks, and has worked as an illustrator on two animated television series for children.
Knuutinen is also an author-illustrator and has created two of her own children’s books, Molly och Kelenken and Saparo Kärsämö. She has a long-standing collaboration with author Sanna Sofia Vuori.
Her work has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions. The illustrations in Piilolaakson talvi (2008) were nominated for the Rudolf Koivu illustration Prize. The picture book Leijona tulee (2022) was nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize. Knuutinen’s warm, expressive, and narrative illustration style is rooted in strong visual storytelling.
Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen is an author who has published both poetry and prose. She has received several awards, including the Anni Swan Medal, the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, and the Finlandia Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The main themes of her books are universal: friendships, time, body, love, and death. Her unique style embraces action but the approach is lyrical and mesmerising. Her main characters are often strong but puzzled girls on the edge of the changes during their rebel teenager years. Her novel Light, Light, Light was selected for the international IBBY Honour List, and a film adaptation written by Juuli Niemi was released in 2023. The film became widely popular and it got several prizes in the film festivals in Europe. In addition to writing books Huotarinen translates literature from Icelandic and teaches creative writing. During last four years she has been also working as a program director of Turku Book Fair, the oldest book fair in Finland.
Photo credit: Mikko Palonkorpi
Annukka Salama (b. 1980) is a Finnish YA author from Tampere. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees. In addition, she has studied fashion design and architecture.
Salama’s young adult novels are known for their fast-paced plots and addictive romances. Her stories also give space to LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent perspectives. Salama’s books enjoy wide popularity among readers and have consistently performed well in annual Blogistania awards voted by book bloggers. In 2024 she won the Queer Book of the Year Award.
Reetta Niemensivu is an illustrator, comic artist and a graphic designer who lives and works in Lahti, Finland. Reetta hasillustrated a great number of children’s books for various publishers in Finland. She is also the author of four comic albums published by Suuri Kurpitsa and she has self-published several small press publications.
She was nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize for the children’s book Penelope and the Perilous Porridge in 2022. She has won the Comic Finlandia Award in 2019 for the album Sisaret 1918.
Teemu Auersalo is a screenwriter and animator. He lives in Ireland with his wife, two sons and three cats. As a child Teemu loved cartoons, nature documentaries, Star Wars, computer games, drawing, cycling, writing stories and making music. He still loves all the same things. He gets excited about new story ideas, monsters and funny creatures, and likes to use fantasy and humour to tell important stories about humans. The adaptation of his screenplay for the film “Fleak” is his first book. He is now working on his second book.
Emma Rautala is an illustrator and animator from Kaarina, whose pen brings to life wonderfully expressive characters. Emma is a graduate of the animation program at the Turku Arts Academy and works with charming characters, intriguing stories, and films.
Maria Vilja is an illustrator and children’s author with background in art education and social work. She creates unique and books with strong atmosphere and beauty. Her books are made for children and adult-readers, for shared moments – to be discussed about. Themes of her books vary from emotions and society to everyday moments with warm humor.
Her picture book, The Only Beautiful Day of the Summer, was nominated for the 2024 Finlandia Prize and is nominated for the 2025 Nordic Council literature award.
Riina Kaarla is a passionate author-illustrator and a creative dynamo, whose internationally published books are especially beloved for their true-to-life and vivid characters.
Sami Kaarla has worked as a professional writer-illustrator for more than a decade. He has written and illustrated dozens of internationally renowned books. He writes and illustrates the YA Nordic Horror series, the Pet Friends and Pet Agents series, and Moomin books based on Tove Jansson’s beloved characters, with his wife, Riina. Still, he finds time for his four sons, four cats, and two dogs who inspire him every day.
Siri Kolu (born July 18, 1972) is a writer, performance dramaturg, director, and theater teacher. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Arts and Bachelor of Arts degree as Drama Instructor (BA). Prior to her theater studies, she pursued literature and theater studies at the University of Helsinki.
With her funny and original adventure Me and the Robberssons Kolu won the children’s novel and film script competition in the fall of 2009. The book was published in April 2010, and won the Finlandia Prize in Children’s & YA literature. The film adaptation hit theaters in the fall of 2014. Me and the Robberssons has been translated into over 20 languages.
Me and the Robbersons has also won the Silver Slate Pencil Award in the Netherlands and has been listed twice for the The English Pen Award. She has also been honored with the Laivakello Prize by the Finnish Institute for Children’s Literature, Topelius Prize and Kaarina Helakisa Literary Prize.
Daniela Hakulinen (b.1984) is a film and television screenwriter who grew up in Northern Finland and later moved to Helsinki. Girl Picture, co-written with Ilona Ahti, made history by being the first Finnish feature film selected for the international competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Hakulinen and Ahti won the Jussi and Sylvi prizes for their screenplay. In addition to film, Daniela Hakulinen writes television series, works as a dramaturg and teaches screenwriting. Girls Girls Girls is her debut novel.
Hannu Laakso is a Finnish photographer and writer, who is fascinated by the purity of Nordic nature. He has won a Finnish state award for this children’s Fun & Facts book series, which introduces us to urban and rural wildlife. He bought his first SLR camera in 1982. In 2014 he finally decided to start participating in international photography competitions. He has received 130 international photography awards, and well over 500 unique photos have been accepted to international photo exhibitions in more than 80 countries.
Laura Lähteenmäki is a Finnish writer of children’s and youth literature. Since her debut youth novel in 1998, she has written around twenty works. Lähteenmäki writes about young people’s lives and their search for a place of their own. She was awarded the Arvid Lydecken prize for a first-class children’s novel for her book Marenkikeiju in 2007 and her work has also been nominated for the Topelius and Finlandia Junior prizes. Laura Lähteenmäki lives in Jyväskylä and, in addition to her work as a writer, she is executive editor in a publishing house.
Sanna Isto is a Berlin based children’s and YA author with a master´s degree from the university of Helsinki. Her stories, rooted in everyday life, are often combined with something strange and out of the ordinary, which allows us to contemplate the world from a new and intriguing angle.
Before becoming a writer, she gained work experience as a hotel employee in London and a bank clerk in Stockholm. She has translated books and films, worked as a festival staff member and art gallery assistant, export secretary, and research assistant. She is especially proud of having planted hundreds and hundreds of trees.
JP Ahonen (1981) is a comic book artist, illustrator, and the author of several newspaper strips in his native Finland. He is best known for his graphic novel SING NO EVIL and the critically acclaimed strip series BELZEBUBS, which has evolved from a humble webcomic into a unique cross-media project, interweaving comics, music and animation.
Anne Vasko is an internationally known Finnish children’s author and illustrator who has created visual worlds for numerous children’s books, both her own and written by others. She is the recipient of the Rudolf Koivu illustration award 2011 and has been nominated for the Finlandia Junior, and also for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2017 and 2021. Vasko graduated with a master’s degree in art from the Aalto Arts Helsinki.
Nora Surojegin is an illustrator, children’s author and a graphic designer. She lives in Kirkkonummi, between the sea and the forest, where she creates worlds with images and words, gets inspired by the forest trolls and potters around in her secret garden. In her work she wants to mix the strange with the incredible and create art that makes you stop. Her books have been translated into ten languages.
Ilona Ahti is an award-winning tv- and film scriptwriter, who has lived on nearly all continents and currently adventures Tansania together with her family. She’s known especially for being the other writer for the film Girl Picture, which was successful at the Sundance festival and was the Finnish submission for the 95th Academy Awards.
Pinja Meretoja is a Finnish children’s picturebook author and an illustrator, living and working in Helsinki. She draws inspiration from themes of environment, cultural history and equality. Meretoja graduated from Universidad de Palermo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) with a degree in Illustration Designer, and since that she has been working on a field of illustration.
Pinja Meretoja has published two children’s picture books at Tammi (2021and 2022) and is now working on her third book – a graphic novel for adults. Her new book Travels in Time was shortlisted for the most Beautiful Books of the Year Award 2022. She loves music, cats, 80’s He-man characters and comics.
Kaisa Paasto spent her childhood in the north of Finland and now lives in Espoo with her husband, two children, bunnies and a shih tzu. Kaisa has a master’s degree in Comparative Literature and has previously worked as translator, content specialist and entrepreneur. Apart from the Anni books she has published a domestic thriller for adults by Storytel Original.
Kai Vaalio is an illustrator, comic artist, and a bit of a cosmopolitan as well. He’s written and illustrated underground comic books for adults about his travels in South-East Asia and Latin America — the latter even won Mondo magazine’s Travel book of the year award back in 2014. Recently he’s ventured into the world of illustrating children’s books mainly with Arttu Unkari’s Dadman Series. Together they’ve made four books about this goofy detective and his clever little posse. The Dadman Series has received Storytel Awards and Runeberg Junior 2023 award nominations. Vaalio’s been on and off in the graphic industry since 2005 when he graduated as a graphic designer from Lahti College of Arts and Crafts. In 2018 he got his bachelor’s degree from Lahti University of Applied Sciences.
Arttu Unkari is a teacher from Helsinki and a Master of Education (University of Helsinki, 2015) who majored in ethics and philosophy. He combines his educational background and experience as a teacher in his books – his stories are anarchist and zany, but at the same time the humour often revolves around profound and intriguing concepts such as honesty, obedience, and morality in ways that speak to children in their own language. His books are enjoyed by adults as well because they contain layers that open up differently to readers of all ages. This is one of the reasons Dadman is such a great series for the whole family.
As an author Unkari is a Runeberg prize nominee 2023 for the third instalment of the Dadman series: Dadman and the Horrible Hypnosis (Isämies ja hyytävä hypnoosi, Otava 2022). The Runeberg Prize is a literary prize awarded by the newspaper Uusimaa, the City of Porvoo, the Finnish Writers’ Union, the Finnish Critics’ Association and the Finland’s-Swedish Writer’s Association. The prize was established in 1986 and it is awarded annually in Porvoo on 5th February, the day when Finland celebrates their national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Three of his books (Dadman and the Exploding poop, Dadman and the Evil Little Brother, and Dadman and the Horrible Hypnosis) have been nominated for best children’s audiobook in the 2020, 2021, and 2023 Finnish Storytel awards. He’s also participated in making a Finnish language schoolbook (Loikka 3, Otava 2022).
Unkari is a sought after inspirational speaker in his home country. He’s visited schools all over Finland advocating for the importance of reading.
Eri Shimatsuka is a Helsinki based Japanese designer and a writer.
Her designs are inspired from Nordic nature and fragments of everyday life. She designs for different brands in Japan and Finland such as Marimekko and Lapuan Kankurit.
She has written many books about Finnish design and everyday life.
‘Kettu ja hiljaisuus’ with Reetta Niemelä (2022) is her first illustrated picture book.
Reetta Niemelä is an award-winning children’s author. She has written poetry collections, picture books, nonfiction, study material and many beloved book series for children. For her work, she’s been awarded e.g. Kaarina Helakisa Award and for her nonfiction the Tietopöllö award. Niemelä’s fantasy novel Black Moon Inn, illustrated by Katri Kirkkopelto, won the Arvid Lydecken Award, was nominated for Finlandia Junior and was selected as the audience favourite.
Topics related to nature and especially animals are recurring themes in Niemelä’s work. She wants to focus on how literature and language can give a voice to the silent ones.
Janne Malinen (born 1981) has worked for a long time in communication and as a freelance journalist. He has graduated from University of Helsinki in 2010 with the major in literature. In 2022, he was selected as Communication Consultant of the Year in Finland. The Secrets of the Sanatorium: Seven Lily-of-the-Valleys is Malinen’s debut book and the first book of the series.
Åsa Lucander is a director and designer, working in illustration and animation both in the UK as well as Scandinavia.
Originally from Finland, she moved to London in 2001 where she was introduced to animation while studying illustration. After graduating she joined the animation studio 12foot6 where she stayed until 2014.
In 2015 she joined Aardman Animations in Bristol, where she is now based.
With multi-faceted strengths in storytelling, design and animation she loves exploring various creative styles, be it in 2d, stop motion or CGI. Åsa has a passion for hand rendered drawings and explores many different textures and mediums in all areas of her work. She loves mixing humour with melancholy and thrills in bringing characters of every shape and form to life with compelling scripts and inventive visions. She nimbly blends music, authentic dialogue, film segments, hand drawn characters and dolls in innovative ways.
Åsa has directed multiple shorts, including her award-winning film Lost Property, as well as many heart-warming commercial films for clients including Blue Peter, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Project Every- one and Childline, and a VR documentary film for BBC. Most recently she directed the music video for Coldplay’s track Daddy that has won numerous awards.
Mari Kujanpää has studied forestry and library studies. During the days she works as a library manager in the Oripää library, and during the evenings she writes. She has authored multiple children’s novels, and her work Minä and Muro, dealing with school bullying, won the Finlandia Children’s & YA Prize in 2009. A play based on the novel was performed in the Finnish National Theatre 2013-2014.
Kujanpää enjoys the challenge of writing about topics often perceived as challenging in the lives of children, such as loneliness, bullying, and a grandparent’s memory disorder. In her best dreams, she spreads her arms and flies over ancient forests. In her nightmares, she is a teenager again and walks the gloomy corridors of secondary school.
Katri Kirkkopelto is an award-winning artist, illustrator, and art teacher. She has illustrated multiple popular picture books and schoolbooks, and her children’s books have also been seen on the theatre stage.
In 2009 Kirkkopelto received the Kylli Koski award, and her works have been nominated for Finlandia Junior in 2016, 2020, and 2022 (Black Moon Inn, with Riitta Niemelä). In 2021 she won the Arvid Lydecken Award together with the writer Reetta Niemelä for Black Moon Inn.Kirkkopelto’s illustrations have been exhibited in Finland and also abroad, e.g. in the biennale in Bratislava.
Ted Forsström is a Finnish-Swedish media personality living in Ostrobothnia. He has worked as a comedian, actor, radio host and author, often as part of the duo Ted & Kaj. Today he works with children’s programs on Svenska Yle and talks once a week in Finland’s biggest Swedish podcast, Ted & Kaj, together with Kaj Korkea-aho.
Riina Kaarla is a passionate author-illustrator and a creative dynamo, whose internationally published books are especially beloved for their true-to-life and vivid characters.
Sami Kaarla has worked as a professional writer-illustrator for more than a decade. He has written and illustrated dozens of internationally renowned books. He writes and illustrates the YA Nordic Horror series, the Pet Friends and Pet Agents series, and Moomin books based on Tove Jansson’s beloved characters, with his wife, Riina. Still, he finds time for his four sons, four cats, and three dogs who inspire him every day.
Anders Vacklin is a prize-winning drama writer, also publishing fiction and non-fiction. He is also a creative writing teacher and script consultant who has helped hundreds of writers tell their stories. Anders writes the YA Nordic Horror series and Pet Friends series with Riina and Sami Kaarla.
A.R.S. Horkka is a very private person and feels unwelcomed in social situations. This author doesn’t give interviews, refusing to step into the public spotlight. Horkka is a human being without a face, skin color, or gender. Part of the Nordic Horror series lure and ‘lore’ is that its author is just a “story,” among other stories.
A.R.S. Horkka is also a pseudonym for wife-and-husband author-illustrator duo Riina and Sami Kaarla and author Anders Vacklin. They are Team Horkka, and this team is on fire. Because – Season 2 is coming!
The authors are already planning seven new Nordic Horror novels.
Riina and Sami Kaarla have worked for over a decade as an author-illustrator duo. They have written and illustrated dozens of internationally sold Moomin books based on characters created by Tove Jansson. Their latest children’s novel series, “Pet Agents” has also been an international success. Its rights are now sold to six countries.
Anders Vacklin is a prize-winning screenwriter, dramaturge, script doctor, creative writing teacher, and author of several non-fiction books on scriptwriting. He has written stage plays, musicals, and even a Virtual Reality game. Anders has also co-authored a YA novel-trilogy based on a script for a short film, a success at PAGE, BlueCat, and ScreenCraft screenwriting competitions.
Satu Varjonen has worked as a freelance editor for 17 years, during which she’s written e.g. for most Finnish women’s magazines. When it comes to storytelling, it is children’s literature that gets her heart beating. Who Nose? in the Thelma the Tenacious Witch series is her debut.
Elina Pitkäkangas is an author from Nokia, Finland, and an active advocate of YA literature. She has studied creative writing and did her master’s degree in the University of Helsinki majoring in literature. Her works seamlessly combine elements of fantasy, social criticism and moral questions. Pitkäkangas has written five novels and produces book-related videos to TikTok and Instagram on her channel @elinapitkakangas.
Hannele Lampela’s lovable works have been praised above all for their rich humor and ability to truly show the world from a child’s perspective. She has the ability to enchant her readers, and that is why both children and adults love her stories. Lampela’s works have been dramatized for example by the Finnish National Theater, Kuopio City Theater and YLE’s radio plays. She has been awarded the prestigious Kaarina Helakisa Prize for her work and she has been nominated for Runeberg Junior award in 2019 and for Storytel Award, and Arvid Lydecken Award in 2020.
In addition to her fictional works, Lampela has written and created a world of stories for the next national ABC book of Finnish schools. First graders across the country will learn to read through Hannele’s texts. Lampela lives in a small wooden house in the middle of apple trees with her family, and spends her days not only writing, but also pampering herself and others on a regular basis.
Meri Luttinen is an award-winning Finnish debut writer from Tampere. Her debut Stormseye won the Topelius prize and was nominated for both Kuvastaja Award and Finlandia Prize for Children’s & YA literature in 2020.
She has a Master’s degree in Finnish language and literature and has worked teaching Finnish and creating study materials. Luttinen is fascinated by everyday life in different eras and wants to transport readers to other worlds with her texts.
Veera Salmi (1976) is a writer who lives in Helsinki. Prior to her career as a writer she worked for 15 years as a kindergarten teacher. The real starting point for her career as a writer was given by the children in the kindergarten, who said they no longer wanted to hear the same old stories that take place somewhere in the countryside. They wanted to hear stories about the city, the kind of place where they themselves lived. So she started writing such stories. First she wrote urban stories for children, then for adults and now for young adults as well. Veera Salmi is a bestselling author of over 20 books.
A Beautiful Day to Die is her brand new, urban young adults’ novel – even though the characters also leave the city. When Salmi wrote the book she travelled around Helsinki by metro, and listened to the teenagers and young adults, making notes about the rich, innovative and international language they used.
Petri Tamminen is a Finnish author best known for his laconic humor and short stories, and 6 novels. How to greet an alien is his first book for children. Tamminen often writes about shame and shyness, and he isn’t afraid to use his own life as an example.
Satu Kettunen won 2015 Rudolf Koivu award for her debut picture book “Otso Aarnisen salaperäinen seikkailu”. Her second book, Yökirja (together with Inka Nousiainen) was nominated for the Nordic Council Children’s Literature Prize in 2017. Satu illustrates children’s books and magazines, and she also creates art installations, exhibitions and street art.
Heidi Viherjuuri is a teacher, children’s writer and a blogger, who lives in Germany. She grew up in a small village in the Finnish countryside – just like Hilja.
MILA TERÄS has written several books for children, young adults and adults, and been nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Junior and Topelius prizes. She often incorporates fantasy and historical elements into her realistic work.
Mila Teräs has been nominated for several prizes, like for the prestigious Topelius Prize in 2006 & 2013, and for the Anni Polva Prize in 2013. She was shortlisted for IBBY honors list 2007, and her and Karoliina Pertamo’s previous collaborations were nominated for the most renowned children’s literary prize in Finland, the Finlandia Prize, in 2014 and 2015.
Two books from Mila Teräs’ middle-grade Telma series have been translated into German. She has written for kids, youngsters and adults.
ELINA HIRVONEN is an author of adults’ and children’s prose, a journalist and documentary filmmaker. She has written four highly acclaimed adults’ novels that are at the same time tragic and beautiful. She is also known for her picture book series Princess Rascal, and she is currently writing a middle-grade trilogy – the first book of the series, Julia & P.A.L. will be published in fall 2020.
She has received Kalevi Jäntti Prize, and Nuori Aleksis Prize and has been nominated for Finlandia Prize and Debut Prize.
Anders Vacklin is a prize-winning screenwriter, dramaturge, script doctor, and author of several manuals on scriptwriting.
Aki Parhamaa is studying creative writing at the University of Jyväskylä, and writing a Finnish superhero movie.
Beta is the duo’s first novel, based on a script for a short film called Suited Reality, a success at PAGE International, International BlueCat, and ScreenCraft screenwriting competitions.
Anne Leinonen (b.1973) is a multiple-award winning, key author, tutor and editor of Finnish science fiction and fantasy. Her most recent publication is the first volume of a YA urban fantasy duology, Bookwitch (Kirjanoita), which will be followed by Witchbook (Noitakirja) in 2018.
Leinonen’s short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies, earning her several Atorox awards (voted for by fans). Her science fiction novels, Viivamaalari and Ilottomien ihmisten kylä were published to positive reviews, as well as a trilogy, Routasisarukset, written in collaboration with Eija Lappalainen, In addition to writing YA and adult fiction, she has now started to work on audio and television dramas.
Anne Leinonen moves fluidly between science fiction and fantasy. Her texts deal with themes of otherness and unfamiliarity, as well as conflicts between the community and the individual. Nature plays an important part in her work, as a vehicle for the story, the stage of action and on a symbolic level. Leinonen’s prose is taut, with no superficial descriptions. Instead, she takes her readers right in to the middle of events and the lives of her characters. Her use of language shows talent and uniqueness, favouring experimentation with different styles and often works on several pieces at the same time. She is especially renowned for her collaborations with other writers.
Leena Parkkinen has authored three prize-winning adults’ novels set in 20th century Europe, often about people living at the margins society. Her skillful use of detail is often imbued with an element of suspense. She has also written two children’s story books.
Parkkinen has received numerous literary awards, such as Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for the best debut (2009), Academic Bookshop’s Bestselling Debut Prize (2009), Laila Hirvisaari Award (2010) and the Kalevi Jäntti Prize (2013), in addition to being nominated for the Tulenkantaja Export Prize 2017. Her works have been translated into seven languages to date.
Magdalena Hai is a lover of cross genre fiction and all things strange, and her fiction often combines elements of sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Besides writing Hai teaches writing and is an active member and editor in the publishing co-operative Osuuskumma.
Riikka Jäntti, a 2003 graduate of Helsinki’s School of Art and Design, now part of Aalto University, is a Helsinki-based illustrator and author who has created art for both nonfiction and fairy tale books for children. Her first children’s book was published in 2005. Jäntti is best known for the adorable Little Mouse series that has been sold to 13 territories, including Australia, Nepal, and China !
In her illustrations she uses pen and ink as well as watercolor and gouache. In 2009 Jäntti won the first ever Tieto-Lauri, an award for children’s and juvenile non-fiction, for her illustrations in Viidakkotanssi (Jungle Dance). The book was written by Markku Löytönen about the explorer Rafael Karsten in Ecuador.
Author photo by Veikko Somerpuro.
Ville Hytönen (b. 1982) is a poet, children’s book writer, bookshop owner, columnist and publishing director at Savukeidas Publishing, which he founded at the age of 19. He lives in Tallinn, Estonia. Hytönen’s poems have been translated into 16 languages. In 2010 he received the Sammon Tekijät Award for new thinking, creativity and innovation. Awarded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the prize is worth 50,000 euros.
Wonky Donkey (Hipinäaasi apinahiisi, Tammi 2013), which Hytönen created together with illustrator Matti Pikkujämsä, was nominated for the prestigious 2013 Finlandia Junior Prize that honours the year’s best children’s book. Wonky Donkey was also named one of 2013’s three most beautiful Finnish children’s books by the Finnish Book Art Committee.
Hannele Huovi (born 1949) is an acclaimed Finnish author who wrote her first children’s radio play while studying for her university degree. In addition to being known as a versatile creator of children’s and juvenile literature, she also writes poetry and prose for adults.
Huovi has received several awards and nominations for her work; among these is the Topelius Prize for the best Finnish youth novel in 2002 (for The Feather Chain), a Finlandia Junior nomination in 2011 (for The Giant Girl and her Tiny Friend), and a nomination for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
During her career Hannele Huovi has collaborated with a variety of illustrators and artists, namely with Kristiina Louhi (Jättityttö ja Pirhonen) and Jukka Lemmetty (Urpo ja Turpo). Hannele Huovi is also an accomplished translator into the Finnish language, having translated more than 50 children’s books.
Mintie Das (b. 1976) was born in India and raised in the U.S., but has traveled around the globe. She resides in Helsinki, Finland. She has 15 years of experience in corporate PR and marketing, and she has also worked as an editor. Her first book, Storm Sisters: The Sinking World, produced in collaboration with Rovio Books, has drawn international attention. In February of 2015 it was one of only 11 entries selected for Books at Berlinale, an annual event that introduces film producers to new literary works with strong potential for the big screen.
Markku Karpio worked as a kindergarten teacher for 12 years before becoming a full-time writer in 1996, one year after the publication of his debut novel Headlamp (Otsalamppu, Otava 1995). Karpio has authored both YA and adult novels and numerous short stories, columns and articles, as well as a four-part television series. His novel Storm Warning (Myrskyvaroitus, Otava 2008) was nominated for the Topelius Prize, an award that recognizes the year’s best Finnish book for children and young people.
Karpio has also been nominated twice for the Kirjava Kettu (“Colourful Fox”) prize, in 2009 (for Storm Warning) and 2014 (for My Father is an Astronaut), and twice for the LukuVarkaus Prize. In 2005 he was given the Pertsa and Kilu prize for his impressive contribution to Finnish youth literature. He lives in Utö, a small island in the Baltic Sea.
Anssi Keränen, an author and illustrator, has a master’s degree in graphic design from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (now part of Aalto University), and has provided graphic design services for some of Finland’s largest corporations. He has also worked as an illustrator for Finnish magazines since 1999. Keränen is known for his humorous style that is at once classic and innovative. In Captain Cody and the Secrets of the Sea (Tammi 2015), Keränen tells an eco-positive story from a fresh and relatable angle.
Tomi Kontio is one of the most esteemed and acclaimed poets of his generation. His debut collection of poetry Under the Ballroom Sky, which came out in 1993, received the J.H. Erkko Prize, as well as the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for the best recently published debut in 1999. Kontio’s poetry has been translated into many different languages, for example English, Spanish, Polish, Swedish, German, Czech, Hungarian, and Estonian. Tomi Kontio has been nominated for the Runeberg Prize first for The Indecent (1994), a collection of short stories, and then for his novel Deep Inside (1995).
He has published outstanding children’s books, of which the first, Daddy Grew Wings in the Spring, won the Finlandia Junior Prize for 2000. His first book for pre-school children, The Cow with a Trap Door in Her Side, came out in 2006. Illustrator Camilla Pentti received the Rudolf Koivu Prize for the book. Kontio has also written columns and song lyrics. He lives in Helsinki, and has five children.
Katja Krekelä is a Tampere-based author known for her lyrical and imaginative stories mixing adventure and fairy tale. Her debut novel Romisko (2011) has been translated into Danish and Swedish. Wild Castle (Tammi 2015), her middle-grade fantasy adventure, explores a simultaneously creepy and delightful world in which nothing is as it seems.
Matthew Laurence has been a writer and game designer for more than eight years. He is consistently delighted that he actually gets paid to make games. His career has taken him from Orlando to San Francisco, Helsinki and Munich. In addition to playing games of all kinds, Matthew writes and cooks, travels with his wife whenever (and wherever) possible, and maintains an unhealthy relationship with Netflix.
The Freya YA series is produced in collaboration with Kaiken Publishing, an affiliate company of Rovio Entertainment. It continues and builds on Rovio’s publishing programs while also developing new stories, worlds and characters.
Kristiina Louhi is an artist and an awarded graphic designer, illustrator and author. She has illustrated dozens of children’s books over the years including illustrations for the texts by Hannele Huovi, Hannu Mäkelä, Leena Laulajainen, Katri Tapola and Riitta Jalonen.
Kristiina Louhi’s Aino series has been published since 1984 and Tomppa series since 1993. Books illustrated by Kristiina Louhi have been published in over ten languages all around the world.
Sanna Pelliccioni is a Finnish illustrator, graphic designer and children’s author living in Helsinki with her Finnish-Italian family. Pelliccioni illustrates with a lot of techniques, in mean time her favourite is collage and mixed techniques. She studied arts, illustration and graphic design in Bologna and in the University of Macerata, Italy and in Pekka Halonen Institute in Finland.
She loves illustrating picture books and poems and making graphic design for book covers and her own books. She also writes for children and young people and concerning the themes of books she’s especially interested in equality, indigenous people, myths and taboos, forest and nature. Pelliccioni is mostly known for her Onni-poika picture book series which started in 2007 and contains 15 books so far.
Pelliccioni collaborates with authors writing for children and young people and works with many Finnish editors. Some of her books are translated to Chinese, Corean, Arabic, English and Swedish, soon also in Turkish and Estonian.
Sari Peltoniemi is a versatile and respected author who writes for children, young adults, and adults. She has also written lyrics and played the bass in the Noitalinna huraa! band. Peltoniemi’s texts have the ability to transform even the most ordinary into extraordinary and everyday life into an adventure. Peltoniemi says she writes organic fantasy that combines everyday reality with the countless possibilities of the imagination.
Pasi Pitkänen has become known for his richly detailed illustrative work on several children’s books such as the Monster Nanny duology by Tuutikki Tolonen. He has also worked at Rovio Entertainment as an illustrator, character designer and graphic designer; Angry Birds: Bad Piggies’ Egg Recipes (Rovio Books 2012), illustrated by Pitkänen, was named Best First Cookbook of the Year at 2012’s Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Among Pitkänen’s hobbies are quantum physics, people-watching, B-movies, insects and baking.
Elina Rouhiainen is a Helsinki-based author with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology. She says she drinks too much coffee, specializes in the wee small hours and one-liners, and loves reading YA novels; and just like her protagonists, she is very familiar with the streets of Helsinki. Rouhiainen finished the first version of her debut novel Untamed, the first entry in the Wolf Creek series, in just over a month. The story took flight when an image flashed through her mind: a big wolf approaching a girl sitting alone at the edge of the forest.
Salla Simukka is the author of the international success story The Snow White Trilogy: rights are sold in 52 territories and in Hollywood. She has written several novels for young readers and her accolades include the Topelius Prize 2013 and the Finland Prize 2013.
Previously Simukka has written book reviews for the newspapers, translated all kinds of texts into Finnish, worked an editor at a literary magazine and as a screenwriter for a popular TV show for young audiences. These days she writes books for young adults and children, and travels the world talking about them.
Marja-Leena Tiainen is one of the most respected and beloved Finnish YA authors, with more than 30 children’s and young adults’ novels under her belt. She often tackles difficult themes such as death, racism or teenage pregnancy in her novels, which by no means lack in emotional depth. Her numerous accolades include the Topelius Prize and two nominations for the ALMA.
Tuutikki Tolonen is the author of several acclaimed children’s books, plays and academic articles. For Monster Nanny she received the Arvid Lydecken award. She teaches creative writing and has worked as an editor and reporter at Vinski, Finland’s only literary journal for children. Her inspiration for the Monster Nanny duology sparked during a family breakfast. “My son Leo, then six, said: ‘I heard on the radio yesterday that all moms have to go on vacation and monsters will take their places,” she says.
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. In 2024, Maria Turtschaninoff won the Eeva Joenpelto Literary Prize (10,000 euro award) for her literary masterpiece Tangled Roots.
Her Red Abbey Chronicles YA trilogy has been sold into 30 languages, while her first adult novel Tangled Roots has been sold to 23 territories. Maria has a Master of Arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer.
Riina Katajavuori is known for both her poetry and her prose, which includes works for both adults and children; her poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages. She is also a frequent columnist for several Finnish magazines. Among her best-known projects is the Pentti picture book series created in collaboration with illustrator Salla Savolainen. Katajavuori’s novel Gifts (Tammi 2004) was nominated for the prestigious Runeberg prize. The Ladies of Seven Brothers (Tammi 2014) became an instant classic upon its fall 2014 publication.
Loukko by 
