3+3 Mathura and Gili Haimovich ELM 1/2023 ••• Gili Haimovich and Mathura first met at a poetry festival in Romania seven years ago and have since enjoyed a long-standing collaborat...
Peeter Sauter: Living Matters More Than Writing By Merily Salura ELM 2/2022 ••• Estonian writer and translator Peeter Sauter’s first novel Indigo (1990) became an instant classic and an important work in Estonian litera...
Tiit Aleksejev: There’s Something Only Literature Can Provide By Annika A. Koppel ELM 2/2022 ••• Tiit Aleksejev is an Estonian writer and historian who has served as the head of the Estonian Writers’ Union since 2016. This autumn, the E...
Katja Novak: War Needs No Epithets By Doris Kareva ELM 2/2022 ••• Katja Novak (Kateryna Botnar) has lived in Estonia for several years. She is completing a master’s degree in cultural organization at the U...
Anja Salokannel’s 30,000 Grains of Barley By Veronika Kivisilla ELM 1/2022 ••• Anja Esteri Salokannel (b. 1947) is a celebrated Finnish publisher, author, and translator who has received the Order of the White Rose...
Andrei Ivanov: Real Writing Is Disturbing By Ilona Martson ELM 1/2022 ••• Russian-Estonian writer Andrei Ivanov lives with his wife and son in a Soviet-era apartment block on the outskirts of Estonia’s capital. He...
Anna Michalczuk-Podlecki Peace lives in the Estonian language By Anti Saar ELM 2/2020 ••• Anna Michalczuk-Podlecki is a devoted translator of Estonian literature into her native Polish. Among other authors, she has translated wor...
Elo Viiding and Kristjan Haljak4+4 ••• Elo Viiding’s debut poetry collection Telg (Axis) was released in 1990; her fifteenth and latest collection Ainult armastusest (Just Ab...
Carolina PihelgasWhat is it that I don’t remember? By Siim Lill ELM 2/2020 ••• Carolina Pihelgas’s books usually appear quietly, without fuss or commotion, at moderate intervals, and blossom into thrilling experiences ...
MudlumIt’s hard to think of anything better than a good book By Maia Tammjärv ELM 2/2020 ••• Mudlum (Made Luiga) is a rising star on the Estonian literary scene. She made her debut in 2014 with the short-story collection Tõsine inim...
David Vseviov Humans, not eras, are either boring or compelling By Toomas Kall ELM 1/2020 ••• David Vseviov is a popular historian in Estonia – students know him as an erudite professor, while the general public knows him as an enter...
Silvia Urgas and Karl-Martin Sinijärv 9+8 ELM 1/2020 ••• Karl Martin Sinijärv (b. 1971) made his debut in Estonian literature with the poetry collection Threecircle in 1989. Silvia Urgas’s debut i...
Kätlin KaldmaaConfronting silence with literature By Igor Kotjuh ELM 1/2020 ••• Kätlin Kaldmaa is a universal literary figure who does – and achieves – many things. She is an award-winning poet, a prose writer, children...
Frans van Nes and Jesse NiemeijerBetween Kross’s roundpole fences By Johanna Ross ELM 1/2020 ••• Six of Jaan Kross’s novels have been translated into Dutch. The first to be published were The Tsar’s Madman (translated by Roland Jonkers ...
Piret Jaaks You only need one round to shoot an elk By Heidi aadma ELM 1/2020 ••• Piret Jaaks is a freelance playwright and dramaturge who, in addition to writing plays, has also penned short prose, children’s books, film...
Viivi Luik and Tõnu Õnnepalu 5+5 ELM 2/2019 ••• V: Have you felt great reverence at least once in your life? T: I have no idea what great reverence is. Whenever anyone talks about the ...
Meelis Friedenthal:You’ll never tire of boring things By Mihkel Kunnus ELM 2/2019 ••• Meelis, the plot of one of your most memorable works, your novel The Bees, is set during the Little Ice Age when local population numbers p...
Allan Cameron:“There can never be too many books!” By Lea Kreinin ELM 2/2019 ••• Allan Cameron is a Scottish writer, translator and publisher who lives in Glasgow. He has already published several books of Estonian liter...
Eda AhiWarmth and perturbation By ELM ELM 1/2019 ••• Eda Ahi is a poet whose sharp words, impeccable sense of rhythm, and rich imagery has captivated readers since her very first collection. M...
Danutė Giraitė: work = hobby = lifestyle By Pille-Riin Larm ELM 2019/1 ••• Danutė Sirijos Giraitė has been translating Estonian literature into Lithuanian for over 40 years, with a list of titles that spans prose, ...
Kristjan Haljak Poète maudit? By Siim Lill ELM 1/2019 ••• Kristjan Haljak is a poet, translator, and instructor of literature. Haljak has occasionally been called a Decadent (no matter whether seri...
Vahur AfanasjevMost important of all is the person By Holger Kaints ELM 2/2018 ••• Vahur Afanasjev is a multifaceted man who has written poetry as well as prose, produced films, performed music, and dabbled in many other cr...
Viivi LuikBeing one with the world, i.e. why leave home? By Aija Sakova ELM 2/2018 ••• Viivi Luik’s collection of essays titled Pildi ilu rikkumise paratamatus (The Inevitability of Ruining the Picture’s Beauty), which also inc...
Kadri Hinrikus It’s worth seeing what’s good By Kristi Helme ELM 2/2018 ••• Kadri Hinrikus, an Estonian children’s literature author, first became known to most of the local population as a TV news anchor. Her hobby ...
Rein Raud – A cosmopolitan with roots An interview by Joonas Hellerma ELM 1/2018 ••• The Estonian public knows Rein Raud foremost as an intellectual and a scholar of the humanities who doesn’t balk at speaking up in discussio...
Doris Kareva High tension captured in bare palms An interview by Jürgen Rooste ELM 1/2018 ••• I’ve known Doris Kareva for many years. I know her to be a good person, editor, and poet, who works persistently to help and publish other p...
Mehis Heinsaar A tightrope-walker inspired by the abyss An interview by Piret Põldver ELM 1/2018 ••• Mehis Heinsaar, who is one of the most esteemed Estonian prose writers of the last decade, is likewise one of the chosen few to receive a st...
Maarja Kangro The pain treshold An interview by Tiina Kirss ELM 2/2017 ••• Several years ago, Maarja Kangro began publishing bold, sometimes stylistically grating and riotous poetry and prose in Estonian. She is als...
Vladislav Koržets “Here I am now!” By Jürgen Rooste ELM 2/2017 ••• Vladislav Koržets (1951) is a long-time celebrity Estonian writer and fisherman, whose poetry debut Songs or Such (Laulud või nii) appeared ...
Adam Cullen The signs of something going right An interview by ELM ELM 2/2017 ••• Adam Cullen (31) is a translator and poet from Minnesota. He first came to Estonia in 2006, somewhat incidentally and with his sights set me...
Job Lisman Being led by literature An interview by ELM ELM 1/2017 ••• Job Lisman is the editorial director of Prometheus/Bert Bakker Publishers in the Netherlands, which publishes such bestselling authors as Je...
Indrek Koff – intuitively in-between modes of expression ELM 1/2017 ••• Indrek Koff (1975) is one of the most fascinating Estonian authors of the last decade. His writing stands out for its experimentation, the a...
Veronika KivisillaNoticing boththe major and minor.Part II By Kai Aareleid ELM 2/2016 ••• Kai Aareleid’s questions for Veronika Kivisilla For starters, perhaps tell the story of your own writing. The recognition of it, things t...
Kai AareleidNoticing both the major and minor.Part I By Veronika Kivisilla ELM 2/2016 ••• Kai Aareleid (1972) and Veronika Kivisilla (1978) are writers whose works have, in a way, recently debuted. Both published their first liter...
Jaan KaplinskiThe last laureate? ELM 2/2016 ••• In February 2016, compelling news rang out: Jaan Kaplinski was awarded the European Prize for Literature. The award, which is sponsored by t...
Piret Raud:Don’t fear the more serious and mature children’s books By Eva and Indrek Koff ELM 1/2016 ••• “I don’t write for children,” Maurice Sendak said. “I write and I’m told: ‘That’s for children.’” A few generations earlier, J. R. Tolkien a...