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
My first novel Body of Evidence was published in 2022. It won the Helsingin Sanomat best debut novel prize in 2022. The German translation Beweiskörper by Tanja Küddelsmann came out with Nautilus in 2025.
My second novel Hopelessness was published in 2025. It was nominated for Toisinkoinen literature prize and the prestigious Runeberg-prize.
I also make music and also sound art. Call me-ääniteos.
as well as spoken word (Hast x Kajo x Räty x Vallila – Tauko)
Body of Evidence
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.
Reviews
“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
“A brilliant counter-document about violence in remembering and forgetting, trauma and beauty. Hast’s debut is a book that will change its readers. It examines violence in a way that is necessary post #metoo. The so-called victim is heard in the novel but in an entirely unexpected way. Body of Evidence is unforgettable, it is never half-hearted or timid. I will keep a trace of it forever.”
– Singer and author Astrid Swan
“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
Susanna Hast 