As a child, she and her family were evacuated from Karelia when Finland was forced to cede the area to the Soviet Union - and several of her works were influenced by the war, such as the autobiographical trilogy "The Time of the Winter War", "The Time of Longing" and "The Time of the Continuation War", writes Swedish Yle .
Kilpi also became known as a strong voice for women's rights and often wrote about women's lives. The novel "Tamara", from 1972, sparked great debate when it was published because in the book she depicts a woman who lives out her erotic desires.
She was awarded, among others, the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1974, the Runeberg Prize in 1990 and the Aleksis Kivi Prize in 2017.
