Anu Kaaja (b. 1984) is an awarded and critically acclaimed author living in Helsinki. She has an MA in film screenwriting, but soon since graduating she has made herself a career as a full-time author. Kaaja’s writing is visual, full of vivid mental images that draw inspiration from art history, cinema, and popular culture. Her work is both entertaining and full of layers, symbolism, and playful language.
Kaaja’s first book was the short story collection Metamorphoslip (2015), which drew attention with its both shocking and exhilarating depictions of sex, violence, and metamorphosis, combined to queer and feminist themes. The book won the Jarkko Laine Award.
Kaaja’s first novel Leda (2017) is an epistolary 18th century retelling of the myth of Leda and the swan, which takes its unreliable narrator to the next level. It was nominated for the Runeberg Prize and won the Toisinkoinen Award, selected by the literature students at the University of Helsinki. Kaaja adapted the novel into a popular puppet theatre play directed by Merja Pöyhönen in 2020.
Kaaja’s third book Katie-Kate (2020) is a collage novel about women’s role in media, combining the British royals, mainstream porn, glamour models, and Disney princesses. This story of a Scandinavian Kate Middleton lookalike stuck in a menage à trois with an elderly royalist couple won the Kalevi Jäntti award.
Her fourth book The Ribbon Bow (2023) tells the story of a hedonistic and melancholy writer on a self-appointed grand tour in Europe. Recovering from heartbreak she is looking for enjoyment in cafés, museums, and techno clubs. While meeting new lovers and making lists of the hottest renaissance boys and the coolest baroque still lives, she discovers that loving objects is often easier – and more satisfying! – than loving people. The book was nominated for the Runeberg Prize and the Nordic Council Literature Prize and has inspired readers to travel and see the artworks described in the text.
The Silhouette Cutter (2026) is a novel about the beauty of darkness and the mysteries of love, death, sphinxes, owls and cats. It tells the story of a literary researcher with an obsession and combines the elements of fantasy, speculative fiction and horror into a spellbinding multilayered tale about a book within a book. The critic of Helsingin Sanomat praised Kaaja as “the master of intelligent, socially critical, funny and magical storytelling on an international level” and compared her writing to the works of Salman Rushdie.
During her career Kaaja’s readers have learnt to expect the unexpected. She is inspired by the chameleon-like musician David Bowie to never repeat herself and finds a new approach for each book. Kaaja has become a favourite among avid readers, bookstagrammers and the Finnish literary scholars. Her work has already been a subject of study for several researchers and a part of a doctoral thesis.
Kaaja makes illustrations for her books and dedicates her spare time practicing different dance styles from classical ballet to contemporary Japanese butoh dance. She loves board games, jigsaw puzzles and cats.
Photo credit: Saara Salmi
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