The Emma Press to publish their first full length novel for adults, Wild Boar by Hannah Lutz
The Emma Press is thrilled to announce the acquisition of Wild Boar (publishing April 2025), the debut novel from Hannah Lutz, translated from Swedish by Andy Turner. They have acquired worldwide English language rights direct from the author.
In the rocky Swedish province of Småland, unruly packs of wild boar have been churning up the gardens, farmland and forests. Once on the verge of extinction, the boar have rewilded themselves, causing intrigue and nuisance to the area’s inhabitants and visitors. Told by three people newly arrived in an isolated community, Wild Boar is a compelling and poetic debut from Finland-Swedish author Hannah Lutz about animals and people, their places in a changing ecosystem, and their capacities to grow and to destroy.
“A compelling and poetic debut”
Following seven short story collections, Wild Boar will be The Emma Press’s first novel. The book will join the Birmingham independent publisher’s growing list of translations – most notably across its children’s fiction and poetry lists – which includes titles from Latvia, Estonia, Spain, Indonesia, and Guatemala.
The novel was originally published as Vildsvin, first in Danish translation by Rosinate (2016) then in its original Swedish by Förlaget in Finland and Albert Bonniers Förlag in Sweden (2017). Turner’s proposal for the translation was one of three books selected from 160 submissions in The Emma Press’s February 2023 open call.
What they said
Author Hannah Lutz said: “Through Andy Turner’s beautiful work and the skilful editing of The Emma Press, Wild Boar has grown a whole new body – soft, strong and deeply alive. I feel moved and thankful that I can now share my novel with my English-speaking family and friends, and hope that its animals, human and non-human, will find their way into new woods and hearts.”
Translator Andy Turner said: “It has been such a privilege to translate the powerful debut of the Finland-Swedish writer, Hannah Lutz, into English for the first time. I am delighted that Wild Boar has found its rightful home with The Emma Press, a gutsy independent publisher whose works showcase a range of women’s voices and translated titles. I hope that many more readers will now get the chance to experience for themselves the mastery of Hannah’s storytelling.”
James Trevelyan, Emma Press Director said: “It’s incredibly exciting to be moving into publishing novels and it feels fitting that our first step into full-length fiction is rich with the poetic but accessible writing we have become known for over the past 12 years. We’re proud to give a home to Hannah Lutz’s compelling, character-driven narrative with ecological themes – captured perfectly in Andy’s translation – and look forward to taking readers trekking into the woods in April 2025.”
About the author:
Hannah Lutz was born in 1984 and grew up in Ekenäs, in southern Finland. She has an MA from Finland’s Åbo Akademi University. She later moved to Denmark and attended the Writing School in Copenhagen. Still based in Denmark, she lives just outside Roskilde. Her short story ‘Den elfte versionen’ / ‘The Eleventh Version’ won the Umeå Short Story Award, Sweden, in 2011. Vildsvin / Wild Boar is Lutz’s debut novel. Written in Swedish, it was first published as the Danish translation in 2016 by Rosinante in Denmark; the original Swedish text was first published in 2017 by Förlaget in Finland and Albert Bonniers Förlag in Sweden. Her second novel, Selma, was published by Förlaget in Finland in 2023.
About the translator:
Andy Turner is a writer, reviewer, translator, and former school teacher and examiner. He works with both Swedish and German and is a member of SELTA and the Translators Association of the Society of Authors. He graduated with an MA in Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia in 2017. He was Swedish mentee in the 2018-19 National Centre for Writing’s Emerging Literary Translator Mentorships Programme, working alongside Sarah Death. His translation of ‘Wild Boar’ by Hannah Lutz is his first full-length adult translation publication.
For further information or to request a review copy, please contact:
Georgia Wall, Publishing Manager, The Emma Press
About The Emma Press:
The Emma Press is an award-winning independent publishing house based in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. It was founded in 2012 by Emma Dai’an Wright and is dedicated to producing beautiful, thought-provoking books for adults and children, and to making publishing and literature more accessible and welcoming. The Emma Press publishes themed anthologies, illustrated chapbooks and children’s poetry and fiction, with a growing list of translations which includes titles from Latvia, Estonia, Indonesia, Spain and the Netherlands. In 2024, the Emma Press were shortlisted for the Bookseller’s Small Press of the Year (Midlands) and the Independent Publisher Guild Awards.
