Andra vägar från periferin: Nilla Kjellsdotter och den finlandssvenska deckarboomen

Authors of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland have traditionally been published primarily by Finland-Swedish publishers, while a few of the most successful find their way into the larger, surrounding literary markets by having their works published in separate editions by publishers in Sweden and/or translated into Finnish and possibly also into other languages. However, Finland-Swedish crime writer Nilla Kjellsdotter, who made her debut in 2021, has chosen a different way from the traditional one, by applying directly to publishers in Sweden without going through the Finland-Swedish publishers in Helsinki. Several other Finland-Swedish crime writers are also currently following in Kjellsdotter’s footsteps. In this article, I examine Nilla Kjellsdotter’s different path from the periphery to commercial success in the larger book markets in Sweden and Finland and ask what kinds of implications this may have for Finland-Swedish literature and its conditions. What kind of impact does the rise of audiobooks and subscription-based streaming services in Sweden and Scandinavia have in this matter? What kind of new opportunities opens for Finland-Swedish writers to partake in the larger, surrounding book markets?By regarding Finland-Swedish literature as a “minor literature”, following Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I also examine how the writing of crime novels assumes political and collective values within the minority context, and how this could be identified in the Finland-Swedish reception of Kjellsdotter’s novels.