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The history of the novel-writing competition organized by the Estonian Writers’ Union goes back nearly a century, albeit with interrupt...
Conversations
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Thirty years have passed since the release of Border State, a novel by Tõnu Õnnepalu (b. 1962) that was published under the pseudonym E...
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Gili Haimovich and Mathura first met at a poetry festival in Romania seven years ago and have since enjoyed a long-standing collaborat...
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Estonian writer and translator Peeter Sauter’s first novel Indigo (1990) became an instant classic and an important work in Estonian litera...
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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...
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Katja Novak (Kateryna Botnar) has lived in Estonia for several years. She is completing a master’s degree in cultural organization at the U...
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Anja Esteri Salokannel (b. 1947) is a celebrated Finnish publisher, author, and translator who has received the Order of the White Rose...
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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...
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Anna Michalczuk-Podlecki is a devoted translator of Estonian literature into her native Polish. Among other authors, she has translated wor...
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Elo Viiding’s debut poetry collection Telg (Axis) was released in 1990; her fifteenth and latest collection Ainult armastusest (Just Ab...
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Carolina Pihelgas’s books usually appear quietly, without fuss or commotion, at moderate intervals, and blossom into thrilling experiences ...
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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...
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David Vseviov is a popular historian in Estonia – students know him as an erudite professor, while the general public knows him as an enter...
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Karl Martin Sinijärv (b. 1971) made his debut in Estonian literature with the poetry collection Threecircle in 1989. Silvia Urgas’s debut i...
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Kätlin Kaldmaa is a universal literary figure who does – and achieves – many things. She is an award-winning poet, a prose writer, children...
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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 ...
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Piret Jaaks is a freelance playwright and dramaturge who, in addition to writing plays, has also penned short prose, children’s books, film...
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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 ...
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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...
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Allan
Cameron is a Scottish writer, translator and publisher who lives in Glasgow. He
has already published several books of Estonian liter...
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Eda Ahi is a poet whose sharp words, impeccable sense of rhythm, and rich imagery has captivated readers since her very first collection. M...
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Danutė Sirijos Giraitė has been translating Estonian literature into Lithuanian for over 40 years, with a list of titles that spans prose, ...
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Kristjan Haljak is a poet, translator, and instructor of literature. Haljak has occasionally been called a Decadent (no matter whether seri...
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Vahur Afanasjev is a multifaceted man who has written poetry as well as prose, produced films, performed music, and dabbled in many other cr...
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Viivi Luik’s collection of essays titled Pildi ilu rikkumise paratamatus (The Inevitability of Ruining the Picture’s Beauty), which also inc...
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Kadri Hinrikus, an Estonian children’s literature author, first became known to most of the local population as a TV news anchor. Her hobby ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Several years ago, Maarja Kangro began publishing bold, sometimes stylistically grating and riotous poetry and prose in Estonian. She is als...
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Vladislav Koržets (1951) is a long-time celebrity Estonian writer and fisherman, whose poetry debut Songs or Such (Laulud või nii) appeared ...
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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...
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Job Lisman is the editorial director of Prometheus/Bert Bakker Publishers in the Netherlands, which publishes such bestselling authors as Je...
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Indrek Koff (1975) is one of the most fascinating Estonian authors of the last decade. His writing stands out for its experimentation, the a...
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Kai Aareleid’s questions for Veronika Kivisilla
For starters, perhaps tell the story of your own writing. The recognition of it, things t...
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Kai Aareleid (1972) and Veronika Kivisilla (1978) are writers whose works have, in a way, recently debuted. Both published their first liter...
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In February 2016, compelling news rang out: Jaan Kaplinski was awarded the European Prize for Literature. The award, which is sponsored by t...
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“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...