The 2006 Cultural Award of the Republic of Estonia for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement was given to the writer Mats Traat. The Estonian annual national award went to Andrus Kivirähk for his book for children Leiutajateküla Lotte (Lotte from Gadgetville) and plays Sürrealistid (Surrealists) and Teatriparadiis (Theatre Paradise).
The annual award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment went to Mati Sirkel, especially for his translation of Robert Musil’s Omadusteta mees (The Man without Qualities) and other books from German.
The genre awards of the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s Literature Foundation in 2006 were distributed as follows:
The prose award went to Mats Traat for Naised ja pojad (Women and Sons).
Poetry award was received by Indrek Ryytle for his collection Inglid Rokijaamas (Angels in Rock Station).
The best essay was written by Hasso Krull on the topic of folklore, titled Loomise mõnu ja kiri (The Pleasure of Creating and Letter).
The young playwright Jim Ashilevi received the drama award for his Nagu poisid vihma käes (Like Boys in Rain).
Peeter Sauter’s Laiskade laste raamat (Book of Lazy Children) was best among children’s books.
The award for translating from a foreign language into Estonian was given to Kalle Kasemaa, who translated Nikos Kavvadias’s novel Vahikord (The Watch) from Greek.
Eric Dickens received the award for best translation of Estonian literature into a foreign language. He translated Mati Unt’s novel Öös on asju (Things In The Night) into English, which was published by Dalkey Archive Press in the USA.
The jury also gave an award outside the genre specification, and this went to Cornelius Hasselblatt for his monumental German-language book about Estonian literature, Geschichte Der Estnischen Literatur, published by Walter de Gruyter.
The best article was written by Toomas Haug, titled A. H. T. Surm Aafrikas (A.H.T. Death in Africa) published in Looming magazine 2006, no 12).
The award for literature in Russian was given to two authors: Jelena Skulskaja for her long-time successful literary activities and for introducing Russian literature to Estonian readers, and Aleksandr Uris for the cycle of stories titled Pood (Shop; published in magazine Baltika 2006, no 1, 2, 3).
The 2006 debut award or the Betti Alver Award went to the intellectual thriller Valge kuningriik (The White Kingdom) by Tiit Aleksejev.
The 2006 Friedebert Tuglas short story award was given to Jürgen Rooste for the short story Pornofilm ja pudel viina (Porn Film and a Bottle of Vodka; magazine Vikerkaar 2006, no 6) and to Mats Traat for the short story Sarviku armastus (Looming 2006, no 11). 2006 was therefore the year of Mats Traat who received three prestigious literary awards.
In 2006 the novel competition took place too. The first award went to Tiina Laanem for her novel Väikesed vanamehed (Little Old Men), the second award to Olle Lauli and Niguliste õpilased (Students of Niguliste) and the third to Aarne Biin’s novel Linna valitsemine (Ruling the Town).
The literary award established by the cultural weekly Sirp and Estonian Railways was given to Indrek Hirv’s collection of poetry Surmapõletaja (Burner of Death) and Peeter Sauter’s collection of short stories Vere jooks (Haemorrhage).
The Eduard Vilde literary award of Vinni Parish went to Jan Kaus for his novel Tema (He).
Kaalu Kirme received the A. H. Tammsaare Albu Parish literary award for his novel Kolm paradiisi (Three Paradises).
© ELM no 25, autumn 2007
