Our stellar authors Salla Simukka and Max Seeck have both had a glorious year, rounding off with a visit to the United States this November!
Salla’s world-conquering trilogy – As Red As Blood, As White As Snow, And As Black As Ebony – was optioned for feature film development by Zero Gravity Management, and the series will be re-issued in the U.S. by Crown Books for Young Readers (PRH). Meanwhile, Max’s hotly-anticipated debut thriller, The Angels of Hammurabi was published in Finland in August, swiftly followed by deals in Germany (Blanvalet) and Estonia (Pegasus) and a second printing in Finland already.
Salla was guest of honor at an evening event in November held in Manhattan, organized by The Consulate General of Finland in New York, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency and Random House. Guests included press, bloggers, and librarians, and during the evening Salla did a lovely Q&A with Phoebe Yeh, her publisher at Crown. Read more about the event here and browse pictures of the evening here.
Also in early November, during the American Film Market in Los Angeles, Elina Ahlback Literary Agency hosted a cocktail reception together with The Consulate General of Finland in Los Angeles and producer, Gudrun Giddings, to celebrate the recent successes of Finnish literature in the United States, with Salla and Max in attendance. Our authors shared insights of their respective books’ plots, characters, and influences – together with their visions for adapting their books to film. The evening was well attended by representatives of Zero Gravity Management, Scott Free Productions, and many more, and generously sponsored by Finnish companies: Tammi, Cleantech Invest, FILI, Finnair, Vallila Interior, (S)Parta Beard, and Goodio – as well as Simukka’s U.S. publisher Penguin Random House, and in collaboration with innovation fund, TEKES. Hollywood was clearly impressed by our Finnish superstar authors!