Hi! I’m Susanna Hast, a Finnish fiction writer, songwriter, performer and a researcher of war and violence.
I have a doctoral degree in International Relations from the University of Lapland and the title of associate professor in Artistic Research from the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki. I teach part-time in dance & theatre pedagogy and writing programs.
Currenty I’m a free researcher in a project studying militarised language in Finland, funded by the Kone Foundation.
Bodies in war, bodies in dance was my academic project before that.
My first post doctoral project was pretty weird, I don’t know how I feel about it anymore. You can download the book Sounds of War: Aesthetics, Emotions and Chechnya for free. I made a record to go with the book: Man State War. Here is a clip from the book launch.
MORE academic publications in Academia.edu
I also make music and also sound art. Call me-ääniteos.
albums soft is the sky and Man State War
as well as spoken word (Hast x Kajo x Räty x Vallila – Tauko)
BODY OF EVIDENCE 2022 (S&S), literary fiction
Helsingin Sanomat best debut novel prize, 2022.
German translation Beweiskörper by Tanja Küddelsmann, Nautilus, 2025.
The 1990s, a small village up north. A terraced house, a block of flats, a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room. A crime has been committed, but no one has called the police, no evidence is gathered, suspects are not questioned. Years later, a woman starts following traces on the fringes of her memory, so as to find the missing archival truth of what happened to her.
She needs to write out the truth in order to regain her humanity.
Susanna Hast’s intimately personal debut novel Body of Evidence shows how bodies remember things language cannot reach. It is a ferocious, fearless and dazzlingly intelligent account about the history of silencing women. Her survival takes place in the chiasm of remembering and forgetting, and the novel shakes its readers to the core.
Critical Acclaim
“The novel is an infuriating and moving masterpiece.”
– Eeva magazine
“You could describe Susanna Hast’s debut as […] startling, devastating and revolutionary.”
– Turun Sanomat newspaper
“Her beautiful and witty style gathers up a history of violence to help the protagonist understand herself. Her questioning leads her to the most painful question: why did she continue returning to her abusers?” – Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
“Hast deals in large and heavy themes but ones that are universal and timeless. She knows how to overtly write about shame and guilt, which makes this an important novel.” – Kaleva
The book made me feel again the powerless rage that arises when reading women’s testimonials about the horrors men cause. Men should read Ruumis/huoneet – so skillfully Hast languages the difficulties in relating to the violence she has experienced. […] Susanna Hast has written one of the best novels of the year. – Kulttuuritoimitus
photo:
Tapani Teittinen
DESPAIR 2025 (S&S), literary fiction
Nominated for the European Union Prize of Literature (2026), the prestigious Runeberg-prize (2025), and Toisinkoinen literature prize for best second novel (2025).
An adult daughter lies in an empty bathtub and calls her mother to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. Their relationship is a contest of indifference, and by making the call, the daughter has already lost.
The mother lures the daughter into lowering her guard—then delivers a single sentence that detonates self‑doubt and paranoia. The unconscious is forced open and refuses to close.
The daughter sets out on a dangerous return to her hometown, where an infectious disease has eroded social order and exposed the human being beneath civility. She fights her way through snow and fear to finally confront her mother.
The psychologically precise, unsettling literary novel plunges into despair and illuminates, without mercy, the institution of the family: inheritance, gifts, mother, father. It examines the violence inherent in intimacy, the necessity of separation, and the terror of the doppelgänger.
Critical Acclaim
“Hast writes world-class literature, comparable to Marguerite Duras or Clarice Lispector. From the pages of Despair I read densely thought, profound and emotionally true sentences.” – Suomen Kuvalehti journal
“[..] Despair takes part in the continuum of literature dealing with mother-daughter relations ambitiously and agonisingly.” – Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
“Despair is a genre hybrid that cannot and should not be read in the mere hope of literary enjoyment.“ – Maria Bešlić, Kaleva newspaper
“One of the novel’s main strengths is its emotionality and intensity. Hast manages to describe psychic and emotional experience precisely and honestly. She does not embellish anything, but looks fear and insecurity in the eye, and instead of denial, surrenders to them entirely.” – Toisinkoinen Literature Prize
SUSANNA HAST 