E. L. Karhu

E. L. Karhu (b. 1982) is a writer, playwright and dramaturg. She studied playwriting and dramaturgy in the Theatre Academy in Helsinki and Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin and works in both the German-speaking and the Finnish-speaking area. She writes plays, novels, performance scripts and works with other artists on both texts and performances. At the moment Karhu is interested in embodiment as a working method in writing as well as the themes of care, care work, desire, pleasure, disability, survival and bodily experiences and mutual care as weapons in fighting capitalism.


At HIAP Karhu is working on a queer rewrite of the Sophocles’ ancient play classic ANTIGONE and finishing her first novel VELJELLENI (TO MY BROTHER), on bodily hierarchies and reclaiming pleasure under the patriarchy (Teos 2021).