Author: Chiara Stanziani

Before the Birds by Merja Mäki is one of the finalists for the Des Racines et des Mots – Prix de la littérature de l’exil Award in France.

Delightful news from Paris: Before the Birds by Merja Mäki is one of the finalists for the Des Racines et des Mots – Prix de la littérature de l’exil in its French edition, out with Léduc/Charleston in translation by Fantine Brunel.

The Des Racines et des Mots – Prix de la littérature de l’exil award is given on a yearly basis to a book that focuses on the themes of exile or gives voice to authors in exile. The winner is chosen by a jury of literary and culture professionals and will be announced on December 6th. Before the Birds tells the story of Alli, a young girl from Karelia forced to flee her home when Winter War breaks out in 1939.

Published in January 2022, Before the Birds instantly became the readers’ and reviewers’ favourite: the novel sold over 10,000 in Finland, and foreign rights have so far been sold to 3 territories: France (Leduc); Sweden (Historiska Media); and Ukraine (Astrolabe). Before the Birds is also the winner of the Torch-bearer Prize in 2022.

Author Merja Mäki  is a writer and Finnish teacher. She has stated that in her view writing about war’s impact on people is peace work. Her Before the Birds and Wept Another have been revered by readers, and Wept Another has recently won her the Pohjalainen Award.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher, and fingers crossed!

Helsinki Literary Agency is excited to announce that the Open Call for the Voices Across / Ääniä yli rajojen / Voces a través Fellowship is now open for applications.

The Open Call aims at selecting a total of 6 acquiring editors from the English-language world and the Basque, Catalan, and Spanish-language areas for the Voices Across Fellowship that will take place in Helsinki from February 3^rd to February 6^th, 2026.

The Fellowship program includes:

– A four-day program in Helsinki with the Finnish literary market in focus

– Flights to and from Helsinki and hotel accommodation during the stay

– Meetings with literary professionals and visits to local publishers

The deadline for applications is set for December 15^th.

The Voices Across / Ääniä yli rajojen / Voces a través project has been launched with the support of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The goal of the project is to foster the visibility and publication of Finnish literature in the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking world. With this project we aim to create new connections to boost the publication of Finnish literature in both areas.

You can find the link and apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdP0qmJKxC9dvO1t2DVRvPodwLESzhkwDwwYLy_g_QOWtxipw/viewform?usp=dialog

If you have any questions, you can be in touch with us at assistant@helsinkiagency.fi.

We look forward to having you in Helsinki!

Today is the day: Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen is out now in the beautiful US edition by Little, Brown.

Beasts of the Sea has been making waves on the other side of the Atlantic ever since the publication was announced: Turpeinen was the cover author on Publishers Weekly, where the book received a starred review as a “fantastic debut [that] interweaves the fate of an extinct aquatic species with the stories of the people who discovered and destroyed it. […] Turpeinen matches the heights of Andrea Barrett with her detailed descriptions of the natural world and intimate character portraits, offering a vast sweep of evolutionary history shot through with impressionistic scenes, whether of Steller watching a sea cow play like a boisterous child or Olson mourning her tubercular father. This tour de force of science and storytelling is not to be missed.“

Beasts of the Sea went on to receive extensive features, including being listed in Goodreads’ selection of New Books to Read in November, and the Top 50 Most Popular Books Published in November, on The Millions’ Great Fall 2025 Book Preview and The Globe and Mail’s 61 books to lose yourself in this fall. 

Library Journal also gave the book a starred review, stating: “Turpeinen’s sweeping novel condenses time, highlighting the brevity of human lifespans while also underscoring their equally destructive impact within those brief years. The evocative and elegiac story highlights how humanity is complicit in species extinction.”

Chicago Review of Books included the novel on their 12 Must-Read Books of November, writing “This mythic masterpiece is sure to stick with you.”

Beasts of the Sea is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries that approaches natural diversity through individual destinies. Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian lost to extinction centuries ago, is revived on the pages and is the red thread that ties together the individual fates of a group of people throughout the centuries. The novel won multiple awards, and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize domestically, and ran as the Best Foreign Book of the Year in France in 2024, and for the Premio Strega in Italy earlier this year. In Finland Beasts of the Sea is published by Kustantamo S&S.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!

Author Timo R. Stewart has received the Union of Research Professionals’ Academic of the Year 2025 Award for fostering research-based knowledge in the public discourse about the Middle East.

Author and PhD Timo R. Stewart has been awarded the Union of Research Professionals’ Academic of the Year 2025 Award. Stewart is a Doctor in Political Science, and a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, specialized in the Middle East. His latest work, the non-fiction book also Palestine and Israel. A History in Maps focuses on the ongoing conflict and the history of the area.

The Research Professionals’ Union has stated: “Stewart has strengthened the role of science in public discourse and promoted the use of research-based knowledge in societal decision-making. He has brought his expertise forward in a consistent and understandable manner, dissecting the current state of the Israel-Palestine conflict, its historical background and potential solutions. Stewart’s statements have offered the Finnish audience research-based viewpoints in a situation where finding common ground has been challenging even for the Finnish Government.”

You can read the whole feature, including statements from the president of the Union, in English here.

In Palestine and Israel. A History in Maps two-times Finlandia nominee and PhD Timo Stewart uses a simple yet efficient structure to tackle a complex issue: over the course of the book, he analyzes 25 maps of the geographical area that encompasses Palestine and Israel, encouraging a critical approach to maps and historiography. Who drew these maps, and with what purpose? Maps are a tool to understand the world, but also a tool of political power and history-making: our ideas of the world and national borders are far from being eternal and set in stone, and exploring their changes and development results in an unusual yet engaging way to approach history with more than skin-deep knowledge. The takeaway is an increased critical eye that can be turned to the different ways conflicts and politics shape the world we live in, in the Middle East and everywhere. In Finland, the book is published by Gummerus.

Warm congratulations to the author, and don’t miss out on this title!

101 Ways To Kill Your Husband by Laura Lindstedt & Sinikka Vuola is travelling to Türkiye , where it will be published by Ayabakan.

101 Ways To Kill Your Husband by Laura Lindstedt & Sinikka Vuola continues its journey out into the world as Ayabakan has secured the Turkish rights.

101 Ways To Kill Your Husband is an experimentally literary title in the tradition of Oulipo that draws its plot from a real-life court case from the 80s in which Anja, a Finnish woman, shot to death her abusive husband. What follows is a historical sentence: the trial that followed the murder resulted in a historical sentence when the jury found the husband posthumously guilty of both the abuse he inflicted on his wife and of his own murder.

 101 Ways To Kill Your Husband flips on its head a common trope of crime and mystery literature, in which the story opens with the discovery of the body of a beautiful young woman, by telling a story where it is instead an abusive man who gets murdered, 101 times and in different literary styles.

Ayabakan is a boutique publishing house founded in 2024 with a carefully curated list focusing on themes like grief and sorrow, ranging rediscovered modern classics to metamodern titles and authors.

Warm congratulations to the authors and the publisher!