Salli Kari

I am Salli Kari. I live in Helsinki and am currently working as an author and scenographer. At the Saari Residence, I am finishing my novel to be published in the fall and drafting the stage design for a play to be staged at the Finnish National Theatre in November.

My second novel, Saili, is a novel that lies somewhere between poetry and prose, the core of which is a young woman’s growth journey from birth to young adult. The work contemplates the creation of a personal narrative in a world without history and asks what happens to a generation that does not know its past—can one then learn to know oneself? Saili is a story of an individual growing in a shattered world, who gathers the full form of humanity from their own pieces. The playful language of the text and its constantly varying narrative approach illustrate the physical and ideological evolution of the developing self-image.

As a creator, I am multidisciplinary and enjoy working in both the performing arts and writing, where different ways of working produce synergies in the development of ideas, deepening each other. As a literary principle, I make works that move fearlessly between species, finding their winding paths to their destination. To achieve this, I must dare to enter a process that challenges me, as the author, to question the possibilities of the text, even if it sometimes leads to dead ends. The method is time-consuming, but it allows for an outcome that cannot be achieved by shortcuts: genuinely unpredictable thinking that surprises first the author and then the reader.

I graduated as a scenographer from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2012 and have worked in many different independent groups and institutional theatres throughout Finland. In addition to traditional drama theatre, as an interior designer, I have been exploring immersive performance interior, which combines the means of scenography and installation. In addition to my work in the theatre, I work as a graphic designer and as a visiting lecturer at the Department of Scenography at the Theatre Academy. My first novel, Vedestä ja surusta (Siltala, 2024), received an enthusiastic reception upon its publication and was awarded the Kalevi Jänti literature prize.