Facilitating the translation of more quality literature into Finnish – 15 works receive a grant for translating world literature into Finnish
With this grant, the Finnish Cultural Foundation aims to make a hundred books from around the world accessible to Finnish-speaking readers. The works for which grants have been awarded during this round come from countries such as Spain, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Since 2022, the Finnish Cultural Foundation has been providing publishers with this grant to publish high-quality literature in translation. Priority is given to literature translated from languages other than English, as there is already a significant amount of literature translated from English available in Finland.
Over the course of ten years, the aim is to facilitate the translation into Finnish and publication of 100 pieces of contemporary literature from around the world. We are already over halfway there, with grants having been awarded for 60 works, of which 32 have already reached bookshops and libraries.
So far, the grants have been predominantly for literature from Europe, including some from less widely spoken European languages. Grants have also been awarded for works from South America and Asia. This round of applications sees the range of source languages grow to 19, with grants awarded for literature from Turkish, Norwegian and Slovakian for the first time.
“With this grant, our aim is to lower publishers’ threshold for publishing this kind of translated literature, the profitability of which is not guaranteed in today’s book markets. The grant can serve as that last push needed to get a work across the publication threshold,” explains Senior Advisor Eriika Johansson, who is responsible for the translation grant at the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Books due for publication in Finnish in the next few years include Palestinian Author Karim Kattan’s queer love story Eden at Dawn (in Finnish: Eedenin aamunkoitto, Finnish publisher: Kosmos). This fictional novel by Palestinian author Kattan tells the love story of two men amidst Israeli settlements on occupied land. It not only opens a window into the reality of life for Palestinians today, it also shows the rich cultural tradition being lost with the Palestinian people. The novel, originally published in French, is being translated into Finnish by Lotta Toivanen.
Särötär is set to publish Slovakian Author Nicol Hochholczerová’s partially autobiographical debut novel Táto izba sa nedá zjest (Finnish: ‘Tätä huonetta ei voi syödä’, English: This Room Is Impossible to Eat). Set over the course of six years, it follows the relationship between teenage Tereza and her 50-year-old teacher. The relationship is one of abuse, but also of love, passion and longing for acceptance. The book is being translated by Eero Balk.
Gummerus is set to publish La Malacarneby Italian Author Beatrice Salvioni, who is already known to Finnish readers. The book is being translated by Leena Taavitsainen-Petäjä and is a follow-up to Salvioni’s debut, La Malnata (Finnish: En pelkää mitään, English: The Cursed Friend), following two girls growing up in Monza amidst the oppression of rising fascism in the 1930s. La Malacarne follows the girls’ lives further through World War Two and the 1940s.
Broad support for reading
Encouraging Finns to read has long been a focus area of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and over the years it has granted millions of euros to support reading and literature. In recent years it has, for example, encouraged reading out loud in families with small children, expanded the range of books available in school libraries, and made plain-language and easy-reading books available to secondary school students. Translating World Literature into Finnish – A Grant for Publishers in turn makes interesting translated literature available to Finnish readers from languages that are not widely spoken in Finland.
