SUSANNA HAST
Susanna Hast (b. 1981) is a Finnish author, performer and researcher of war and militarism whose work is intellectually rigorous and viscerally felt. Her writing has been compared to Marguerite Duras, Maggie Nelson and Clarice Lispector.
Her debut novel BODY OF EVIDENCE (2022) won the prestigious Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. Her second novel DESPAIR (2025) was nominated for both the Runeberg Prize and the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize, and is shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature 2026. It has been described as world-class literature in reviews.
Existential and political themes run throughout her work: the body, violence, power, and transformation. She pushes at the boundaries of what a novel can be and do, blending form and content in ways that are structurally ambitious and deeply unsettling.
Originally from Rovaniemi in northern Finland, Hast often draws on the North as a setting. In BODY OF EVIDENCE, the northern landscape frames a story rooted in the 1990s, while in DESPAIR, the final section unfolds in a vividly imagined northern winter environment – extreme, elemental and deeply atmospheric.
Her forthcoming third novel, THREE STAGES OF DEATH, to be published by Gummerus in 2028, continues her acclaimed exploration of violence, memory, grief and mortality.
Author photo: Susanna Kekkonen
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
2026 — Shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature
2025 — Nominated for the Runeberg Prize (Finland)
2025 — Nominated for the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize for best second novel (Finland)
2022 — Winner of the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best debut (Finland)
Titles by SUSANNA HAST
Endorsements
“Susanna Hast is one of the most exciting writers I've had the pleasure to read in recent years. Her work defies expectations, blending and combining different modes and genres, and leaves the reader bleeding, craving for more yet gratified – like only the best literature can. ”
PAJTIM STATOVCI
“Susanna Hast is one of the strongest and most singular voices in contemporary Finnish-language literature. A writer of violence, and above all, of violent silences – she constructs her novels according to the logic of silence, repression, and taboo, while at the same time creating inimitably composed and fiercely powerful narratives, brimming with originality and intellectual depth, about the most forbidden subjects. Susanna Hast is one of the young generation of authors making Finnish-language prose in Finland perhaps the finest and most challenging in the Nordic countries today.”
MONIKA FAGERHOLM
“Susanna Hast’s debut felt like something entirely new – I'm confident nothing quite like it had been written in Finnish literature before. I was convinced I had encountered a truly exceptional and singular talent. Now I am extremely proud and excited to be publishing her third novel.”
LEENASTIINA KAKKO, Editorial manager, Gummerus