Henrik Kouassi is a Finnish-Ivorian novelist and former investigative producer based in Turku. Born in 1984 in Abidjan and raised between Oulu and Åbo, he studied comparative literature at the University of Helsinki and spent a decade in public radio, where his longform reporting on Baltic shell companies and municipal kickbacks drew national attention. His background in document hunts and cold coasts shapes fiction that blends maritime atmospherics with forensic attention to money and power.
Kouassi's debut, Blackfish Harbor, won the Runeberg Prize for a first novel and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. He followed it with the story collection Salt Roads, Quiet Rooms, praised for its precise prose and moral bite. When not writing, he volunteers at a maritime museum, restores vintage Nikon cameras, and divides his time between Turku and Mariehamn.
