Mari Kujanpää

Mari Kujanpää has studied forestry and library and information science. During the days she works as a library manager in the Oripää library, and during the evenings she writes. She has authored multiple children’s novels, and her work Minä and Muro, dealing with school bullying, won the Finlandia Prize in children's and YA literature in 2009. A play based on the novel was performed in the Finnish National Theatre 2013-2014.

Kujanpää enjoys the challenge of writing about topics often perceived as challenging in the lives of children, such as loneliness, bullying, and a grandparent’s memory disorder. In her best dreams, she spreads her arms and flies over ancient forests. In her nightmares, she is a teenager again and walks the gloomy corridors of secondary school.