Kaari Marjatta Utrio (born 28 July 1942, official surname Utrio-Linnilä, formerly Virkajärvi) is a Finnish writer.

Her father was Untamo Utrio [fi], who after the Winter War worked as CEO of Tammi, a Finnish publishing company.

She was awarded the Finnish State Publication Prize [fi] in 2002 for her life's work, and the Pro Finlandia medal in 1993.

Utrio utilises her historical knowledge in great detail to strive for authenticity in depicting the lives of medieval people and to make history come alive for the readers.

The private history of everyday life is a prominent element in her books, the lives of ordinary people taking precedence over political events.

Everyday life is described from a woman's point of view, also reflecting the inferior position of women in historical times.

Utrio writes strong and capable heroines who are able to achieve relatively good positions in life because of their strength and love.

Utrio can be seen continuing the tradition of the Finnish historical novel, including authors like Zachris Topelius, Santeri Ivalo [fi], Mika Waltari and Ursula Pohjolan-Pirhonen.

However, Utrio renewed the Finnish historical novel as a genre by raising female characters to the fore and by exploring the role women have always had in the private sphere, maintaining not only the home but social cohesion.

It has been argued on the Kirjasampo website (the representative of public libraries in Finland), that she has been the single most influential author to have shaped Finnish women's thinking.

Hundreds of thousands of Finnish women have, since 1968, read and been influenced by Utrio's views inherent in her books, such as need for equality between genders, existence of female strength, practical family values, and non-religiosity, as well as fact-based comprehension of circumstances, mentalities and conditions of human life in a selection of past centuries, usually in agrarian economy.