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Hi, I’m Jenni Perälä

I am a literary and commercial translator living in Finland. I translate literature from English and French into Finnish. I also translate other materials such as communications and marketing copy, drawing on 14 years of experience. I have a real fondness for proofreading and editing texts in Finnish.

I hold a Master of Arts degree from the University of Turku, Finland. I majored in English Translation and Interpretation and graduated in 2011. My minor subjects included French Translation and Interpretation, Media Studies, Creative Writing and Comparative Literature.

I have been employed as an in-house translator at Aalto University, the City of Espoo, the Finnish Immigration Service and the language service provider Semantix Finland. In 2023, I decided to become a freelancer and founded my business, Sananautti Translations.

The Wordnaut

Sananautti is Finnish for ‘the wordnaut,’ an astronaut exploring the universe of language.

The name of my business reflects me as a person: I have always been a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy, and I am curious about almost everything.

Like C. K. Chesterton put it, ‘There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.’

Translation is the niche where my talents, skills and interests meet. It is the best job in the world: I get to look for the right words while researching life, the universe and everything. As you know, we translators are always researching something. If you have a text whose topic you don’t understand, you cannot translate it, either.

I find meaning in my work when I am helping people understand each other by giving them a voice in another language. An editor once told me that my translation of a novel read as if the book had been written in Finnish to begin with. Creating reading experiences like that inspires me. It’s the reason I do this work.

My published works

Novels and non-fiction

  • Matthew Blake: A Murder in Paris (Finnish title still undecided)
    (Gummerus, upcoming)
    Originally published as Murder in Paris by HarperCollins Publishers in 2025.
  • Sophie Stava: Kaikki nuo valheet
    (Gummerus, 2025)
    Originally published as Count My Lies by Gallery/Scout Press in 2025.
  • Dilly Court: Sunnuntailapsi
    (Gummerus, 2025)
    Originally published as Sunday’s Child by HarperCollings Publishers in 2022.
  • Dilly Court: Unelmahäät
    (Gummerus, 2025)
    Originally published as Winter Wedding by HarperCollings Publishers in 2021.
  • Natasha Lester: Fitzgeraldin suudelma
    (Gummerus, 2024)
    Originally published as A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald by Hachette Australia in 2016.
  • Ian Whitelaw: Maailmanhistorian pahimmat erehdykset ja ihmiset niiden takana
    (Schildts & Söderströms, 2013)
    Originally published as History’s Biggest Blunders and the People Who Made Them by Sterling Publishing in 2012.
  • Sandra Brown: Nopeita leikkauksia
    (Tammi, 2011)
    Originally published as Smash Cut by Simon & Schuster in 2009. I translated this book with eight other students from English into Finnish as part of our literary translation studies at the University of Turku, Finland.
  • Olivier Adam: Le Cœur régulier
    I translated this book from French into Finnish with other students as part of our literary translation studies at the University of Turku, Finland. Our translation was completed in 2011 but the publishing deal was unfortunately cancelled.

Short stories

  • Jacques Acar: Kysykää Kungfutsea (French title: Demandez Papa Confucius). This short story was included in the graphic novel collection Bruno Brazil 3, published in Finnish in 2014 by Egmont.
  • Tobias S. Buckell: In Orbite Medievali (English title: In Orbite Medievali). Published in Spin, issue 2/2013. Spin is the quarterly magazine of Turku Science Fiction Society (TSFS).
  • Nalo Hopkinson: Punaiseen tanssiin (English title: Riding the Red). Published in Spin, issue 4/2010.
  • Jean-Claude Dunyach: Jälkiä lumessa (French title: Nos traces dans la neige). Published in Spin, issue 4/2009.
  • Pierre-Alexandre Sicart: Kuinka pelastin Maapallon marsilaisten hyökkäykseltä (French title: Comment j’ai sauvé la Terre des Martiens). Published in Spin, issue 4/2009.
  • Stephen Kotowych: Lainattua aikaa (English title: Borrowed Time). Published in Spin, issue 1/2009.
  • Jonathan Clements: Kuoleman sauna – Jonathan Clementsin seikkailut suomalaisten maassa 29.7.–4.8.2003 (English title: Sauna of Death – JC Among the Finns Fatales, Finland, 29th July-4th August 2003). Published in Spin, issue 3/2008.

Board game

  • 1918: Brother Against Brother. I translated the boardgame from Finnish into English. Read more about the game at BoardGameGeek.com.

Volunteering

  • Translation Editor, Spin, 2010–2012. I selected short stories not written in Finnish for translation and publication in the magazine and assigned them to our volunteer translators.

Master’s thesis

My MA Thesis (2010) looks at cultural allusions in Anglo-American literature and the way they are translated into Finnish.