Emmi Itäranta wins Tähtivaeltaja Award and Saara Turunen goes to #1 on the Finnish Bestseller List!

Fantastic news from the Fantasy world: with her book MOONDAY LETTERS, Emmi Itäranta has received The Tähtivaeltaja Award for the Best Finnish Science Fiction Book 2020!

According to the jury composed of experts, MOONDAY LETTERS has a style that is clear and crisp and very fluent. The jury says: “The author’s strong vision of the solar system shows us the direction we are heading at. Simultaneously it poses the question: are we changing while our everyday and our place of living change and what kind of a price are we paying for all this.” “Another poignant theme in the book is ecology. The vista into a collapsed and abandoned crust that humans have sucked empty, is cautionary and prophetic. This makes MOONDAY LETTERS astutely topical.”

Praise:

“Itäranta’s language is beautiful, and depictions almost poetic. The story grows, as emotions, clues, past, secrets and truth open like flowers. The plot flows forward and the mystery keeps readers hooked up. And it is a pleasure to read.” – Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

Download full English manuscript

With her fresh new novel IRRATIONAL THINGS, Saara Turunen tops the official Finnish Bestseller list and goes to No.1

Praise:

“We are honored to be the first foreign publishers of this masterly Work by Saara Turunen. We believe that its subject is a matter of great relevance in the face of the modern life-style and the readers will relate with and feel for the main heroine.”-Ieva Savukynaitė-Dubicka, BALTO, Lithuania

Download materials from here.

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The Spring application period started on 1st of April and will be closed on 1st of May.

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We will advise you to find the best possible translators, and in some cases, you can also translate from English. Find more information about translators here: https://kaantopiiri.fi/en/search-translators/

MOONDAY LETTERS
Teos, 2020

Rights sold:
FINLAND Teos (orig.)

Reading materials:
Full English manuscript

IRRATIONAL THINGS
Tammi, 2021

Rights sold:
FINLAND:Tammi (orig.)
LITHUANIA: Balto

Reading materials:
Long English sample, synopsis

Emmi Itäranta

Emmi Itäranta (b.1976) holds two MA degrees, one in Drama and another in Creative Writing. Her award-winning debut novel Memory of Water (Teemestarin kirja) was published in Finland in 2012 to great accolades, followed by The Weaver (Kudottujen kujien kaupunki) in 2015. Her latest novel The Moonday Letters (Kuunpäivän kirjeet) was published in September 2020.

Itäranta’s writing has been compared to that of Ursula K. Le Guin. Her honours include the Young Aleksis Kivi Prize 2013, the Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize 2012 and first place in the Teos Fantasy and Sci-Fi Literary Contest 2011.

Memory of Water has sold to over 25 languages to date, and it has also been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award recognizing the best science fiction novel published in the UK in 2014, and the Golden Tentacle award. In addition, Itäranta has been included on the Honor List of the Otherwise Award (formerly James Tiptree, Jr. Award).

Itäranta’s CV is an eclectic mix of writing-related activities, including stints as a columnist, theatre critic, press officer and dramaturge. Her poems, short stories, articles and essays have appeared in anthologies, film magazines and science fiction magazines in the UK and Finland. She now lives in Finland after 14 years in the United Kingdom.

Saara Turunen

Saara Turunen is an internationally acclaimed award-winning author, playwright and director. Much of her work examines the themes of art, identity and social norms. Turunen is known for her four highly acclaimed novels -Hyena Days (2024) - Irrational Things (2021), The Bystander (2018) and Love/Monster (2015), but also for her work in theatre. Her works have been translated into 16 languages and performed all around the world. Turunen has received the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize in 2015, the Finland Prize in 2016, the City of Helsinki’s The Artist of the Year Award in 2018 and the Lea-Prize in 2020, all high-profile awards given in Finland.

About author

Emmi Itäranta

About author

Saara Turunen