Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It was a pleasure to meet many of you at the London Book Fair last week and also in Frankfurt and Helsinki over the past two years. Next week I’m moving on to my new job at Minerva Publishing and I hope we will stay in touch also in the future. At Minerva I’ll be in charge of fiction – both Finnish and translated fiction. My new contact details are:

maria.santti@minervakustannus.fi
Tel. +358-50-3552845
Minerva Kustannus Oy
Lastenkodinkuja 1 A, 4. krs
00180 Helsinki, Finland
www.minervakustannus.fi

The new literary agent, Annukka Vähäsöyrinki, is already taking over Burning Bridge Literary Agency. If you wish to get more information about its writers and books, reading copies or anything else, please, don’t hesitate to contact her:

annukka.vahasoyrinki@burningbridge.fi
tel. 358-400-773105
Burning Bridge Literary Agency
Kirjan talo (Book House)
Linnankatu 24
20100 Turku, Finland
www.burningbridge.fi

We wish you a happy May Day!

Maria Säntti & Annukka Vähäsöyrinki

On February 14, film producers had once again the opportunity to discover exciting new literary material for the screen at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. This year, 81 books from around the world were submitted, more than ever before. Out of them twelve novels that have outstanding potential for the screen were chosen and presented on Tuesday at the Books at Berlinale. The books were from Finland, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Roope Lipasti at Berlinale

One of the chosen ones was The Neighbour by Roope Lipasti. It is a hilarious comedy of two men building an outdoor sauna and a beautiful wife in between them, full of witty, sparkling dialog and slapstick humour.

After the moderated five minutes pitching in front of about hundred film producers from all over the world, we were approached by German, French, Italian, British, Irish and even big American film producers during the breakfast. They said that the story is strong and appealing, “exactly what we are looking for”. Let us see what will happen in future, after we have sent the more specific synopsis of the novel for them.

Syd Atlas & Maria Säntti at the Books at Berlinale

In addition, we are now negotiating with a number of German, Italian, British and Swedish book publishers of the translation rights (foreign rights). In Finland The Neighbour (orignal title: Rajanaapuri) is due to be published in March 2012 by Atena Publishing House.

The Books at Berlinale was held within the scope of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, whose main partners are MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market (EFM).

Maria Säntti
Literary Agent

Kari Hukkila’s essay ‘An Algerian Friend’ is to be published soon in Hyperion, a magazine concentrating on the continental philosophy and aesthetics. The preview to the essay will be written by the literary critic Jan Blomstedt. Hyperion  is published by the Nietzsche Circle in New York.

‘An Algerian Friend’ was first published in Finnish in The Heretic Essays by Kari Hukkila (Savukeidas, 2010). The ten essays of the book form a delightful story of a decades-long friendship between two men from very different backgrounds. The essays deal with a friendship which does not depend on similarity. The Heretic Essays ponders Europe’s seemingly intractable conflicts, awakening a conversation around xenophobia, foreignness and the confrontation between cultures. By its wide-ranging scholarship and open thinking the book brings new aspects of thought to the debate.

Milla Paloniemi (b. 1983) graduated as a graphic designer in spring 2007. The Cursing Hedgehog collection, published by Sammakko, was this Helsinki-ized Ostrobothnian’s senior project. The comic character appeared on the corner of Milla Paloniemi’s lecture notebook for the first time in the fall of 2003. The angular ball of spines began to take life in insightful strips that go straight for the funny bone. The first Cursing Hedgehog album has sold a total of more than 40,000 copies, and the next four albums have also been sales successes, totaling 100,000 sold copies. The sixth album is due to be published in March 2012 by Sammakko.
More about The Cursing Hedgehog in English: www.thecursinghedgehog.com

Anni Nykänen (b. 1983) is a graphic designer from Helsinki. The Granny (Sammakko 2010) comic got its start from Nykänen observing elderly women in the swimming pool sauna and listening to their conversations.   The energetic Grandma says and does exactly what she wants. She can also be as unruly as an adolescent. Her family consists of a loving and calm Grandpa, and a plump Cat. The second Granny will soon be published by Sammakko.
More Granny comics: mummo.sarjakuvablogit.com

Joonas Lehtimäki, was born in Raisio, south-western Finland, in 1981. Lehtimäki teaches courses and workshops for the Helsinki Comics Center, and has worked as a comics publisher. Anonymous Animals (Sammakko 2011) is a comic strip that walks the fine line between bad taste and really bad taste, with themes ranging from incest to seppuku. It has risen to cult status on the pages of the “Nyt” (“Now”) entertainment supplement of Finland’s largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat.

More about Milla, Anni and Joonas including the sample translations of their strips in English in our brochure Comics from Turku.