Jenni Saari and Anu Kaaja

We are coming to the Saari Residence to work on a prose piece called Haiesseet, which explores concepts such as fear, violence and whiteness as well as ecological issues and gender roles through popular shark films and shark-inspired visual art.

Anu Kaaja is writing the text, and we are collaborating on the illustrations. We intend to spend our time at the Saari Residence experimenting with mixed-media illustration and exploring alternative ways of portraying shark species that the film industry has labelled as killing machines. Fish are considered the least sentient of the creatures consumed by humans, and we want to challenge this view by approaching sharks with tenderness.

We expect the residency to give us an opportunity to work together on our paper, recharge our minds away from distractions – and spend many a night watching shark horror films.

Anu Kaaja is a writer known for her prose works on power, violence and visual culture. She is the author of three novels, a collection of surrealistic short stories and a children’s poetry book. Kaaja’s works are linguistically playful, experimental, entertaining and queer.

Her latest novel, Rusetti (S&S), was nominated for the 2025 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Katie-Kate (Teos), which deals with royalty and pornography, was awarded the Kalevi Jäntti Prize. Kaaja has also won the Toisinkoinen Prize and been nominated twice for the Runeberg Prize as well as for the Helsinki Sanomat Literature Prize for a debut novel.

Kaaja’s latest novel, Siluetinleikkaaja (S&S), is coming out in March 2026.

Jenni Saari is a graphic designer and visual artist whose book covers have won the Finnish Book Art Committee’s award for the Most Beautiful Books of the Year several times. Saari has worked extensively on book art both as an in-house graphic designer in a publishing house and as a freelance artist.

She has designed the covers and appearance of all of Kaaja’s books.