Category: Literature

Gunnar K. A. Njalsson’s ‘Harper: A Collection of Horrors’ easily catches attention since it combines elements that form quite an unexpected combination – it’s a horror collection written and published in Hiiumaa, but the story in the book takes place in a small town called Harper which is located in southern California. The book is written in English but it contains some fragments in Estonian as the main characters are people who fled from Estonia to the United States during World War I. Without giving too much away it can be said that life in their new homeland is not quite comparable with a rose garden.

The book consists of a first-person narrative of the son of a family, Gordon, who tells about a small town called Harper, where his family settled in 1954, and about a series of daunting and terrible events that happened there in the years 1950-1980. The beginning of the story is promising: there’s a nice and thorough overview of the town, which, by the way, has some interestingly named streets (Shrapnel Street and Mercy Shot Boulevard) but everyday life in there is constantly interrupted by weird accidents and strange creatures. Gordon’s descriptions give a nice glimpse into the small-town atmosphere of the US horror films of the ’70s and ’80s, and also make you feel a bit tired because of the stereotype familiar from many movies, in which all the characters can see with their own eyes that something is not right, but no one ever believes the words of their loved ones or family members and everyone lives in a continuous state of denial where everything bad is definitely not real and is possible only in nightmares and fantasy world. And it continues in the same vein for decades, until everyone has found their place either in another city, in the mental institution or, in the worst case, in the afterlife.

Of course, involving Estonian characters makes this novel interesting for the Estonian readers and it has its point in the context of the plot, but at the same time, the Estonian element brings out somewhat naive clumsiness of the novel that might have been avoided with the help of a good editor. Firstly, several sentences in Estonian are grammatically incorrect or just sound really weird. It’s understandable that people who live abroad for a long time may not perfectly master the Estonian language, but sometimes the phrases are just too out of place. Secondly, it is stressed every time when someone starts to speak in Estonian. This continuous mentioning that somebody told something IN ESTONIAN makes you feel that you are reading some children’s book where everything has to be very clearly stated to be understood.

Although the author is able to create a mood suitable for a horror novel, he writes fluently and very visually and has many interesting ideas, the different pieces of the book do not form a coherent and effective whole. The story of the family progresses quite well and even has a small twist in the end, but the horror part of the novel remains a bit too monotonous, the tension does not rise nor drop, nor does it create any meaningful connotations or improvements, and in the end, it does not get anywhere. Of course, the title of the book already points out that it is a “collection of horrors”, but I would have expected some exciting conclusion (not a solution!) or a striking link between the incidents that took place in Harper. In its current form, ‘Harper’ remains just a collage of fears and nightmares where there are so many different things happening but where all the individual leads take you to nowhere.

Culture.ee’s virtual culture guide.

JANUARY
1.–7.01., Tartu 5TH TARTU WINTER MUSIC FESTIVAL
1.–7.01., Tallinn 7TH TALLINN BACH MUSIC FESTIVAL „BACHFEST“
5.–11.01., Tallinn KORFEST 2018
19.–20.01., Jõgeva 13TH POETRY DAYS „CHILDREN OF THE WIND“ DEDICATED TO BETTI ALVER
20.01., Tallinn INTSIKURMU WINTER FESTIVAL
24.–26.01., Pärnu DRAAMA 2018 SMALL THEATRE FESTIVAL FOR CRITICS
26.01.–4.02., Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Jõhvi MUSTONENFEST
26.01.–14.10., all over Estonia FESTIVAL „SCHOOL DANCE“
31.01.–4.02., Tallinn DOCPOINT TALLINN

FEBRUARY
2.–4.02., Tallinn 5TH JEW’S HARP FESTIVAL
3.–4.02., Tallinn SIMPLE SESSION 18
3.–4.02., Laulasmaa 16TH YOUTH THEATRE FESTIVAL TEENIFEST
5.–10.02., Rakvere RAKVERE GYMNASIUM’S FILM FESTIVAL
5.–13.02., Tallinn 11TH TALLINN WINTER FESTIVAL
9.02., Tallinn ACOUSSION FESTIVAL
10.02., Valga 18TH INTERNATIONAL PIANO ENSEMBLES FESTIVAL
10.–11.02., Tartu 18TH FESTIVAL OF YOUNG CELLISTS
10.–22.02., Tallinn FESTIVAL „ESTONIAN THEATRE IN THE ESTONIAN NATIONAL OPERA“
12.–16.02., Tallinn FESTIVAL „VIRMALISED“
16.–17.02., Kuressaare 4TH NATIONAL A. RAUDKATS DANCE COMPETITION
16.–18.02., Viljandi 16TH STUDENT THEATRE DAYS
23.02., Tallinn INDOOR MUSIC FESTIVAL „MADE IN ESTONIA“
23.02., Tallinn WINTER GRIND

MARCH
4.–31.03., all over Estonia THE MONTH OF FRANCOPHONIE
9.03., Tallinn MARCH 9 PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL „SERIOUSLY ABOUT HUMOUR“
9.–10.03., Jõgeva 22ND MUSIC DAYS DEDICATED TO ALO MATTIISEN
9.–10.03., Tallinn ARS FILM FESTIVAL AFF 2018
10.03., Tallinn 11TH PERFORMING ARTS SHORT FORMS FESTIVAL MADE IN ESTONIA MARATHON
10.03., Valga ESTONIAN MUSIC VIDEO FESTIVAL
15.–18.03., Tallinn EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL „CECILIANA“
19.–25.03., Tartu 15TH WORLD FILM FESTIVAL
22.–24.03., Tallinn TALLINN FASHION WEEK
23.–25.03., Kuressaare NATIONAL SCHOOL THEATRE FESTIVAL „SAAREMAA MINI THEATRE DAYS“
24.03., Tartu SOUND AND DUSK FESTIVAL „NIGHT OF THE ESTONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM“

APRIL
April, Tartu FESTIVAL „VUNK“
2.–8.04., Tallinn TALLINN MUSIC WEEK 2018
9.–29.04., across Estonia GERMAN SPRING 2018 – FOCUS ON HAMBURG
12.–13.04., Tartu STUDENTS SCIENCE FESTIVAL 2018
12.–19.04., Tallinn, Tartu ESTONIAN MUSIC DAYS 2018 „SACRED“
12.–22.04., Tallinn TALLINN OLD TOWN FOOD FESTIVAL
17.–24.04., Viljandi JAZZ FESTIVAL VILJANDI JAZZKAAREKE
19.04., Lehtse MUSIC FESTIVAL FOR SMALL SCHOOLS „MUSIC INSIDE AND AROUND US“
20.–23.04., Tartu, Tallinn POLISH AND ESTONIAN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL „WARSAW SPRING“
20.–29.04., all over Estonia JAZZKAAR
21.–28.04., Tallinn XI HARPSICHORD FESTIVAL
23.–29.04., Viljandi DANCE WEEK
26.–29.04., Tartu 17TH SUPILINN DAYS
27.–28.04., Tallinn TALLINN COFFEE FESTIVAL
27.–29.04., Haapsalu 13TH HAAPSALU HORROR AND FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL (HÕFF)
27.–29.04., Tallinn TALLINN LARP FESTIVAL
27.–30.04., Tallinn TRADITIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL „SABATANTS“
27.04.–5.05., Jõhvi 11TH JÕHVI BALLET FESTIVAL
28.04., all over Estonia ESTONIAN OPEN FISHING PORT DAY 2018
28.04.–5.05., Tartu TARTU STUDENT DAYS: SPRING

MAY
2.–5.05., Tartu AUTHOR’S SONG FESTIVAL „MAILAUL“
2.–6.05., Viljandi VILJANDI COMEDY FILM FESTIVAL „WILKOM“
5.–6.05., Pärnu PROVINCIAL THEATRE DAYS
7.–12.05., Tartu, Jõhvi INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE FESTIVAL „PRIMA VISTA“
11.–12.05., Mooste ESTONIAN FOLK MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS FESTIVAL
12.05., Lao 8TH RÄIMEWEST HERRING FESTIVAL
12.–13.05., Kihlepa DANDELION FESTIVAL
17.–19.05., Tartu ULMEFESTIVAL
17.–19.05., Tartu FREEDOM FESTIVAL
19.05., all over Estonia NIGHT OF MUSEUMS: PARTY IN THE NIGHT
19.05., Koigi WEED FESTIVAL
23.–27.05., Tallinn TALLINN LITERATURE FESTIVAL „HEADREAD“
25.05., all over Estonia INTERNATIONAL NIGHT OF CHURCHES
26.05., Abja-Paluoja 5TH MULGI PARTY
26.05., Orjaku WINDFISH FESTIVAL
26.–27.05., Kuressaare KURESSAARE STREET FESTIVAL
30.05.–3.06., Tallinn 37TH TALLINN OLD TOWN DAYS

JUNE
June, Pärnu, all over Estonia and Europe DIVERSE UNIVERSE PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
June–September, Naissaar, all over Estonia NARGENFESTIVAL
1.–2.06., Viljandi VILJANDI HANSEATIC DAYS
1.–3.06., Türi 12TH TÜRI SPRING FESTIVAL
2.06., Haapsalu HAAPSALU ITALIAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
2.06., Häädemeeste NORTH LIVONIAN FESTIVAL
2.06., Võru 5TH VÕRO-LANGUAGE SONG AND FOLK FESTIVAL UMA PIDO
2.06., Kohila KAPAROCK 2018
2.06.–1.07., Haapsalu HAAPSALU GRAPHIC DESIGN FESTIVAL
4.–10.06., Tartu ESTONIAN FASHION FESTIVAL
6.–12.06., Tallinn 5TH GUSTAV ADOLF ORGAN FESTIVAL
7.–9.06., Saue, Tallinn 16TH INTERNATIONAL YOUTH RHYTHM MUSIC FESTIVAL „VISIOON“
7.–17.06., Tallinn, Tartu, Narva FESTIVAL „TADAA!“
8.–10.06., Haapsalu INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS FESTIVAL „HOOG 2018“
8.–10.06., Uuri BUSHCRAFT FESTIVAL ESTLAND 2018
8.–10.06., Luige FESTIVAL „SWAN’S BEAK“
9.06., Virtsu ART FESTIVAL „TOORTUUMIK“
9.–10.06., Haapsalu NARGENFESTIVAL’S KREEK DAYS
9.–15.06., all over Estonia TALLINN GUITAR FESTIVAL 2018
10.06., Tallinn THE VERY SHORT MOVIES FESTIVAL 2018
11.–17.06., all over Estonia STREET ART FESTIVAL „STENCIBILITY“
13.–15.06., Saue 21ST DAYS OF CREATION AND IMPROVISATION
13.–16.06., Tartu NATURE FESTIVAL
14.–17.06., Hiiumaa SÕRU JAZZ
16.–17.06., Vastseliina XXIV COUNTRY FOLK FAIR
16.–17.06., Tartu TARTU STREET FOOD FESTIVAL
16.–23.06., Põhja-Sakala Parish 21TH SUURE-JAANI MUSIC FESTIVAL
20.–22.06., Kihnu Island KIHNU KNITTING FESTIVAL
22.–24.06., Tartu 18TH INTERNATIONAL STUDENT SONG AND DANCE FESTIVAL „GAUDEAMUS“
25.06.–08.07., Pärnu, all over Estonia 32ND PÄRNU FILM FESTIVAL
26.–30.06., Peipsimaa V PEIPSIMAA ORGAN FESTIVAL
27.–30.06., Haapsalu HAAPSALU TCHAIKOVSKY FESTIVAL
29.06., Tartu TARTU CITY DAY
29.06., Tartu GYPSY FESTIVAL „ROMANÕ TŠERGEN“
29.–30.06., Vana-Vigala HARD ROCK CAMP
29.–30.06., Värska SETO FOLK
29.–30.06., Kaiavere FESTIVAL „PUNK’N ROLL“
29.–30.06., Pühajärve village RETROBEST FESTIVAL 2018
29.06.–15.07., Ida-Viru County 20TH „THE MUSIC OF SEVEN CITIES“ FESTIVAL
29.06.–5.08., Kabli KABLI SUNSET FESTIVAL
30.06.–1.07., Narva 3RD NARVA MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL
30.06.–7.07., Peipsimaa 3RD LAKE PEIPUS FESTIVAL

JULY
July, Jõhvi INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL „SLAVIC LIGHT“
July–August, Pärnu, Riga PÄRNU PRINTMAKING IN FESTIVAL „HEAVENS UNDERGROUND“
4.–6.07., Tallinn ÕLLESUMMER FESTIVAL
4.–7.07., Rakvere INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMING ARTS „BALTOSCANDAL“
4.–7.07., Tallinn 8TH HORTUS MUSICUS SUMMER FESTIVAL „IN HORTO REGIS“
4.–8.07., Haapsalu 25TH HAAPSALU EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
4.–8.07., Sänna FINNO-UGRIC FILM FESTIVAL
4.–8.07., Saaremaa FESTIVAL „THE SONOROUS SOUNDS OF THE ORGANS OF SAAREMAA“
5.–7.07., Pärnu PÄRNU OPERA DAYS
5.–8.07., Muhu Island, Kuressaare, Tartu, Tallinn 22ND MUHU FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL „JUU JÄÄB“
5.–8.07., Tallinn 19TH MEDIEVAL DAYS
5.–8.07., Võru 24TH VÕRU FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
5.–8.07., Äksi SAADJÄRV FESTIVAL 2018
5.–9.07., Pärnu PÄRNU HARMONICA FESTIVAL AND COMPETITION „BALTIC-NORDIC OPEN“
6.–7.07., Kohtla-Nõmme FESTIVAL „THE MOUNTAIN SOUND“
6.–7.07., Pärnu BEACH FESTIVAL „BEACH GRIND“
6.–7.07., Toomasmäe SETO MIDSUMMER EVE BONFIRE
6.–8.07., Kihelkonna 23RD KIHELKONNA CHURCH MUSIC DAYS
6.–8.07., Kihnu Island KIHNU SEA FESTIVAL
6.–8.07., Kikkaoja ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL „KÕU“
7.07., Laiksaare VÕNGE 2018. THE TRAVELLING MUSIC FESTIVAL
7.07., Valga VALGA COUNTY FESTIVAL OF TRADITIONAL CULTURE „SÄDE GARDEN PARTY“
7.07., Lindi village COASTAL VILLAGE FESTIVAL „FEAST OF OUR VILLAGE“
7.–8.07., Tartu TARTU HANSEATIC DAYS
7.–8.07., Tallinn 1ST ESTONIAN PIANO FESTIVAL „CAPTIVATED BY THE PIANO“
8.–14.07., Viljandi NOTAFE 2018
9.–14.07., Põlva County STREET ART FESTIVAL „RURAL URBAN ART: PÕLVAMAA“
10.–15.07., Viljandi VILJANDI VANAMUUSIKA FESTIVAL
10.07.–13.08., Tallinn ALION BALTIC FESTIVAL
11.07.–8.08., Pärnu SUMMER ARIA. SYNTHESIS OF THE ARTS 2018
12.–15.07., Orissaare I LAND SOUND 2018
12.–17.07., Tartu FESTIVAL „GLASPERLENSPIEL“
13.–14.07., Kanepi FESTIVAL „BEER CAMP & ROCK’N’ROLL“
13.–15.07., Haapsalu AMERICAN BEAUTY CAR SHOW
13.–15.07., Kilingi-Nõmme KILINGI-NÕMME TOWN DAYS
13.–15.07., Tallinn TALLINN MARITIME DAYS
13.–15.07., Pärnu 6TH PÄRNU INTERNATIONAL SAXOPHONE MUSIC FESTIVAL „SAX.FEST ’18“
14.07., Venevere PANDIVERE MUSIC FESTIVAL SUMMER RAGER 2018
14.–15.07., Hiiumaa HIIUMAA CHAMBER MUSIC DAYS
14.–15.07., Roosiku HEART MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018
18.–21.07., Narva BALTIC SUN 2018
19.–22.07., Hiiumaa 14TH HIIUMAA FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL „HIIU FOLK 2018“
19.–22.07., Valgeranna SURF CAMP 20
19.–28.07., Kuressaare SAAREMAA OPERA DAYS
21.07., Haapsalu FESTIVAL „ROCK IN HAAPSALU“
21.07., Hingu MOTONOSTALGIA 2018
21.07., Põltsamaa PÕLTSAMAA CASTLE DAY
21.07., Pärnu ESTONIAN VILLAGE MUSICIANS’ REUNION
21.07., Pärnu HAPPY CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL
26.–29.07., Viljandi 26TH VILJANDI FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL
26.–31.07., Hiiumaa, Tallinn 13TH HIIUMAA HOMECOMING FESTIVAL
26.07.–5.08. Rapla County 26TH RAPLA CHURCH MUSIC FESTIVAL
27.–28.07., Tartu MUSIC FESTIVAL „PUNK & ROCK 2018“
27.–28.07., Võsu VÕSU BEACH FESTIVAL „POWER ON THE BEACH 2018“
27.–29.07., Vormsi Island ST. OLAF’S DAY
27.–30.07., Pärnu PORCELAIN DAYS
27.07.–5.08., Tallinn EUROPA CANTAT XX TALLINN 2018
28.07., Valga 10TH INTERNATIONAL VALGA MILITARY HISTORY FESTIVAL
28.07., Narva-Jõesuu EAST BEACH FEST 2018
28.–29.07., Haapsalu YOGA FESTIVAL
28.–29.07., Võru VÕRU CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL „EARTH RINGS OF JOY“
28.07.–12.08., Tallinn 32ND TALLINN INTERNATIONAL ORGAN FESTIVAL
29.07., Tallinn LASNAMÄE PIE FESTIVAL
30.07.–5.08., Hiiumaa HIIUMAA DANCE FESTIVAL
31.07.–4.08., Kuressaare 24TH KURESSAARE CHAMBER MUSIC DAYS
the end of July or the beginning of August, Vormsi Island VORMSI SURFING DAYS

AUGUST
2.–5.08., Haapsalu AUGUST BLUES
3.–4.08., Põlva INTSIKURMU FESTIVAL
3.–4.08., Palupera LEIGO LAKE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018
3.–4.08., Rõngu ESTONIAN HIPHOP FESTIVAL
3.–5.08., Narva-Jõesuu FESTIVAL „GROW AND DECAY“
3.–5.08., Eivere, Paide 6TH EIVERE PIANO FESTIVAL
3.–5.08., Suuremõisa PÜHALEPA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018
3.–5.08., Tartu TARTU FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL
3.–5.08., Tartu TARTU SUMMER SWING
5.–11.08., Pärnu PÄRNU MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018
7.–12.08., Lihula 8TH LIHULA FLOWER EMBROIDERY FESTIVAL
7.–12.08., Mustvee VM FEST MUSTVEE INTERNATIONAL SACRED MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018
8.–12.08., Uhti 2ND POTTER’S WHEEL FESTIVAL KEDRAFEST 2018
9.–11.08., Kuressaare KURESSAARE MARITIME DAYS
9.–12.08., Haanjamaa SMOKE SAUNA WEEK IN HAANJA
9.–18.08., Tallinn BIRGITTA FESTIVAL
10.08., Elva ELVA FESTIVAL OF EXPERIENCES
10.–11.08., Paide OPINION FESTIVAL
10.–11.08., Pärnu 21TH PÄRNU GUILD DAYS
10.–11.08., Puhja ROCK@ULILA 2018
10.–12.08., Käsmu VIRU FOLK
10.–12.08., Tartu 13TH INTERNATIONAL WIND BAND FESTIVAL „MÜRTSUB PILL“
10.–12.08., Tartu RIVER EMAJÕGI FESTIVAL
10.–12.08., Tõstamaa TÕSTAMAA DAYS
10.–12.08., Narva HISTORY FESTIVAL „NARVA BATTLE 2018“
11.08., Pärnu PÄRNU FIDEOFEST
11.08., Pärnu NATIONAL MINORITIES’ SUMMER FESTIVAL „MULTICULTURAL PÄRNU“
11.08., Kose FESTIVAL OF MILD MUSIC 2018
12.08., Haapsalu CHILDREN’S CULTURE FESTIVAL „CHILDHOOD MAGIC“
12.08., Anija MANOR CULTURE FESTIVAL
13.–18.08., Tartu TARTU LOVE FILM FESTIVAL TARTUFF
15.–19.08., Lüganuse parish RIVER FESTIVAL „PURFEST“
15.–19.08., all over Estonia C-JAM CELLOFEST 2018
15.–20.08., Võru town and Võru County E. TAMM VÕRU WIND INSTRUMENT FESTIVAL
16.–18.08., Pärnu WEEKEND FESTIVAL BALTIC
17.08., Rakvere ESTONIA’S FIRST POETRY FESTIVAL
17.–18.08., Rapla 3RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR DANCE FESTIVAL „NEIGHBOUR, COME TO DANCE!“
17.–18.08., Võru VÕRU TOWN DAYS
17.–18.08., Univere village URISSAARE KANTRI 2018
17.–19.08., Pala SKENERAATOR FESTIVAL 2018
17.–19.08., Ruhnu island RUHNURAHU FESTIVAL
17.–19.08., Põlva County ECOFESTIVAL
18.08., Alatskivi LITERARY FESTIVAL „ESTONIAN READER“ 2018
18.08., Haapsalu STREET FOOD FESTIVAL „PROMENADE OF FLAVOURS“
18.08., Järva-Jaani FILM ROLL FESTIVAL
18.08., Varnja VARNJA SAUNAFEST
19.–20.08., Valga FESTIVAL „STARS OF AUGUST IN VALGA“ 2018
19.–31.08., Tallinn 14TH TALLINN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
20.08., Tahkuranna village TAHKURANNA CUCUMBER FESTIVAL
23.–26.08., Tallinn FESTIVAL „TOWERS OF TALLINN“
24.08., Laulasmaa 7TH ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S DAY’S GEMS
24.–26.08., Haapsalu WHITE LADY FESTIVAL
25.08., Tallinn TELLISKIVI FLEA MARKET FESTIVAL
25.08., Tallinn CULTURE NIGHT
25.–26.08., Peraküla NÕVA FLOUNDER FESTIVAL
25.–26.08., Tudulinna END OF SUMMER FESTIVAL „TUDULINNA LIGHTS“
31.08.–1.09., Tartu FESTIVAL IN APARAADITEHAS

SEPTEMBER
1.–2.09., Tallinn UUS MAAILM DISTRICT STREET FESTIVAL 2018
1.–9.09., Narva NARVA OPERA DAYS „CONTEMPART“ 2018
3.–9.09., Tartu ESTONIAN THEATRE FESTIVAL „DRAAMA“
3.–9.09., Saaremaa SAAREMAA FOOD FESTIVAL
7.–9.09., Haapsalu NOSTALGIA DAYS
8.09., Tallinn LITERARY STREET FESTIVAL
8.09., Otepää CHANTERELLE FESTIVAL 2018
10.–16.09., Tallinn 13TH TALLINN DESIGN FESTIVAL
14.09., Tallinn FESTIVAL OF STRANGE FILMS
14.–15.09., Rapla CULTURE FESTIVAL „SÄRIN“ („SIZZLE“)
14.–15.09., Tihemetsa MUSHROOM FESTIVAL
17.–23.09., Hiiumaa HIIUMAA FOOD AND ART FESTIVAL
19.–21.09., Tallinn WALKING LIGHTS FESTIVAL 2018
19.–23.09., Lihula, Haapsalu 16TH MATSALU NATURE FILM FESTIVAL (MAFF)
19.–23.09., Rakvere KAMALAMMAS FOOD FESTIVAL
20.–22.09., Tallinn SOUND PLASMA FESTIVAL FOR MICROTONAL MUSIC
20.–22.09., Tallinn 6TH INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL TILT
21.–22.09., Tallinn ECOMESS 2018
21.–23.09., Narva STATION NARVA 2018
22.–23.09., Tartu JAPANESE POPCULTURE FESTIVAL „ANIMATSURI 2018“
24.–30.09., Tartu TARTU STUDENT DAYS: AUTUMN
27.–29.09., all over Estonia RESEARCHERS’ NIGHT FESTIVAL
28.–30.09., Kihnu Island KIHNU VIOLIN FESTIVAL
29.09., Tallinn APPLE FESTIVAL

OCTOBER
4.–10.10., Tallinn TALLINN FASHION FILM FESTIVAL „MOEKUNSTIKINO“
5.–6.10., Viljandi FOLK MUSIC HARVEST FESTIVAL
5.–7.10., Tartu INTERNATIONAL AUTHOR’S SONG FESTIVAL „MUSIC OF THE FALLING LEAF“
5.–12.10., Tallinn 11TH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL KLAVER 2018
6.10., Nõo FESTIVAL OF LIGHT
8.–28.10., all over Estonia FILM FESTIVAL „CINEMA TO THE COUNTRY“
9.–12.10., Tallinn TALLINN COMEDY FESTIVAL
9.–14.10., Viljandi VILJANDI GUITAR FESTIVAL
9.–17.10., Tallinn, Viljandi, Sillamäe, Narva GOLDEN MASK IN ESTONIA
10.–28.10., all over Estonia PAN-FINNO-UGRIAN DAYS
11.–13.10., Tartu TRADITIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL „SABATANTS“
11.–14.10., Tartu 7TH INTERNATIONAL A-FESTIVAL
11.–14.10., Tõrva TÕRVA DOKFEST
12.–14.10., Tartu 23RD INTERNATIONAL EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL „ORIENT ET OCCIDENT“
13.–28.10., all over Estonia CHILDREN AND YOUTH MUSEUM FESTIVAL „OPEN PLAYGROUNDS“
17.–20.10., Tallinn TALLINN FASHION WEEK
19.–24.10., Tallinn AUTUMNFEST
20.–28.10., Tallinn VII NU PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
25.–27.10., Tallinn TALLINN FOODFEST
25.–28.10., Tallinn FESTIVAL „ÜLE HELI“
25.–28.10., Tartu ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING AND LIGHT FESTIVAL TAVA 2018
27.10.–2.11., Tartu, Tallinn 17TH INTERNATIONAL MODERN MUSIC FESTIVAL „AFEKT“
31.10.–2.11., Tallinn INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL „NAKS“

NOVEMBER
November–December, all over Estonia CHRISTMAS JAZZ
5.–8.11., Tartu MEDICAL FILMS FESTIVAL MEFF 2018
5.–11.11., Viimsi VIIMSI HAPPY JAZZ FESTIVAL
6.–28.11., Tallinn SKULPAKUU
8.–9.11., Tartu FESTIVAL „CRAZY TARTU“
8.–10.11., Tallinn 22ND ST MARTIN’S DAY FAIR
9.–11.11., Tartu 3RD TARTU YOUTH FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
9.–12.11., Tartu, Narva 8TH TARTU INTERNATIONAL JAZZ AND RHYTHM MUSIC FESTIVAL „IDEEJAZZ“
12.–17.11., Ida-Viru County NORDIC CULTURE WEEK 2018
16.–25.11., Tallinn, Tartu CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL „JUST FILM“
16.11.–2.12., Tallinn, Tartu TALLINN BLACK NIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
23.11.–1.12., Väike-Maarja 10TH VÄIKE-MAARJA MUSIC FESTIVAL
24.11.–2.12., Tallinn, Tartu EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL „TALLINN FEAT. REVAL“

DECEMBER
2.12.2018–7.01.2019, all over Estonia CHRISTMAS MUSIC FESTIVAL „CHURCH HOLIDAYS IN ST MARY’S LAND“
2.12.2018–10.01.2019, Tartu CHRISTMAS CITY TARTU
7.–9.12., Rakvere FESTIVAL „DARKLAND FIRE 9“
9.–15.12., Tallinn THEATRE FESTIVAL „MIDWINTER NIGHT’S DREAM“

Read more about upcoming festivals in Estonia in 2018!

The holiday season is approaching fast and that means the culture.ee’s this week’s recommendations are quite christmassy. There are theatre, runic songs, fair atmosphere, Valga, Rapla, tennis hall and observatory, wintery folk dance, a play of the ice flowers, a bunch of literary stuff from the library and warm wishes from Pokumaa. May your week be filled with joy and pleasant experiences!
Time of warm wishes in Pokuland
8 Dec – 17 Dec
Pokuland (Pokumaa)
In December, when there’s Christmas rush everywhere, it’s peaceful and forest-scented time of warm wishes in Pokumaa, just like the Poku calendar says. What would be a Christmas world without sweet activities and cozy moments or without a lovely show for the whole family? This way, Pokumaa will help you enter the beautiful and peaceful Christmas time, where warm wishes are found and delivered on time.
Rapla Christmas World
10 Dec – 21 Dec
Culture Club BAAS
Rapla Christmas World takes visitors to a traditional and cozy world full of the smell of a Christmas tree, magic and Christmas feeling!
Book week of the Christmas month
12 Dec – 16 Dec
National Library of Estonia
Come and choose a great book to spend time with during the dark time or refresh your spirit at the literary events! Here you will find a lot of valuable gifts to fill the Santa’s bag.
Improtest: Ted Parker
13 Dec
Kanuti Gildi SAAL
„Improtest” is a concert series that brings improvisational music from local and foreign authors to a local audience. This time, the performer is Theodore Parker – a musician exploring the use of guitar, electronics, and acoustics in improvised music creation.
Runic Song Room „Jõuaks, jõuaks jõulud tulla”
14 Dec
Valga Museum
Songs about the enjoyment of singing, the beginning of the works of the winter season, holidays, advent time, celebrating Christmas and saying goodbye to Christmas.
Christmas mood concert by Kristina Vähi and Riina Pikani
15 Dec
Tartu Observatory in Tõravere
On December 15, 2017, at 3 p.m., the Christmas mood concert will be held at Tartu Observatory in Tõravere. A soulful soprano Kristina Vähi and dynamic and expressive pianist Riina Pikani will perform. The classical music gems by Schumann, Tubin, Ojakäär and other composers will be presented.
5th Kolga Christmas fair
15 Dec – 17 Dec
Kolga Tennis Hall
The three-day Kolga Christmas fair will be held for the fifth time. The fair offers dance, theatre, music and enjoyment for both adults and children.
Wintry Tartu Folk Dance Day 2017
16 Dec
Tartu Town Hall Square
Dancers from Tartu and Tartu County perform Estonian folk dances and simple group dances on Town Hall Square of Tartu. Indrek Kalda, a violinist, will add to the magic and a folk dance specialist, a teacher and lecturer Vaike Rajaste will tie the event together. The whole celebration is directed by Kati Grauberg-Longhurst. Come and see and perhaps even participate in some of the most loved Estonian folk dances!
Hand-printed Christmas cards – cut once, print a hundred times!
16 Dec
Kumu Art Museum
Come and make your own Christmas cards at Kumu Education Centre under the guidance of Kaija Kesa! Card printing is suitable for both adults and schoolchildren and provides a good experience in graphics and the ancient art of print.
Christmas concert „The Play of an Ice Flower”
17 Dec
Rakvere Holy Trinity Church
Concert of Chamber Choir Solare and Choir Studio So-La-Re. The choirs are conducted by Elo Üleoja, Ly Hiire and Keio Soomelt. Piano accompaniment by Piret Villem.

This Saturday, Koidula Street will be transformed into Tallinn Literary Street, which will contain exciting events for both younger and older readers.
How did you come up with the idea for the festival and why did you decide to hold it in Kadriorg?
It’s common knowledge that Kadriorg is full of art. There are Kadriorg Art Museum and KUMU located on Weizenberg Street. The cobblestone of the parallelling Koidula Street has been marked by the footprints of countless Estonian writers. That’s why we were inspired to bring Kadriorg’s literacy to the public’s attention by literally bringing the literature out to the streets.
Who’s invited to the Literacy Centre festival? Are any preparations necessary?
We welcome everyone who takes interest in the event- to the point of an eyebrow raise or even an exclamation. Festival essentials are weather appropriate clothing, a bit of cash and most importantly, a friendly and curious mindset.
What kinds of activities have are in stock for younger readers?
Rahva Raamat’s and Estonian Children’s Literature Centre’s tents will be solely dedicated to kids’ activities. The tent named Segasummasuvila (Villa Villekulla) contains exciting children’s literature, fun activities every hour and different workshops. Tallinn Central Library will also be providing kids with tons of entertainment. It’s very important to bring children closer to books, so it’s delightful to have multiple participants working on that at our festival.
The programme is very diverse. Do you have any reccomendations for a book lover or, vice versa, for someone who doesn’t connect with literature that much?
A true literature lover should definitely attend the presentations of various writers, as well as the impelling talks on the topics of literature and culture. Listening to texts presented live by the author cannot be compared to reading them alone at home. Enthusiasts should also familiarize themselves with the new books introduced at the festival. Another pastime would be visiting the Mati Unt bench, which will be opened at 12 o’clock next to the Swan Pond. The pond is a significant sight for literary Kadriorg as it’s a place that the author- while living on Koidula Street- loved visiting.
Someone not so keen on literature should still feel assured to check out the tents. It can can be suprising to discover all that Nation Library of Estonia is enaged in or just how many copious and educational culture magazines there are in Estonia. All these organizations have come out on the streets, out of their comfort zone. They would like to introduce everything they’re working on, which is exciting to say the least. There is no doubt that even those not avid about literature can come to enjoy the festival and autumny Kadriorg.
Is there any book presentations inluded in the programme?
A grand total of six new books will be presented during the festival, two of which are thoroughly linked with Koidula Street. We are very grateful that the writers have aligned their releases wih our festival.
Is it possible to buy writings from the festival?
Yes, you can buy both old and new books as well as a selection of children’s books chosen by Rahva Raamat.
Are you planning to hold Tallinn Literary Centre in another distric in the future?
We’re definitely not leaving Kadriorg; nevertheless, there is a lot of potential for our festival’s growth.
How did you choose writers for the festival?
The programme was developed in cooperation with the institutions represented at the festival. They were the ones to pick out all the speakers and topics, so, altogether, the festival is a big collaboration.
It’s especially heartwarming to see how supportive the Kadriorg community and Koidula Street residents have been towards our project. One household will also hold a literary yard event in their frontyard. It will involve music, books, children’s activities, a cafe and much more. Even the local startup is participating and organizing historical tours of Kadriorg. Another big contributer is the cafe Gourmet Coffee located on Koidula Street.
Tallinn Literary Centre festival is a big collaboration of a lof excellent participants, after all, that’s the only way it should be!
Interview translated from kultuur.info blog by Emili Maiste.
 

This week we recommend a whole lot of interesting things. There is, for example a literature festival, that you can enjoy even if you do not speak Estonian, and the Tallinn Photomonth that doesn’t require for you to be from Tallinn or enjoy traditional kinds of photography.
Arvo Pärt Days 2017: Tintinnabuli
10 Sep /11 Sep
Tartu St Paul’s Church/Tallinn St John’s Church
The British vocal ensemble The Tallis Scholars first became famous as performers of Renaissance music, praised for their unique and pure sound quality. They recorded the disc Tintinnabuli (Gimell) for Arvo Pärt’s 80th anniversary, accoladed by many and rated among the top ten Arvo Pärt’s musical recordings by the well-known music magazine Gramophone. The concerts in Tallinn and Tartu are the joyous occasions for the Nargenfestival audience to listen to Arvo Pärt’s musical works from the disc.
Literary Street Festival
09 Sep
A. H. Tammsaare museum
Almost all literary institutions come to visit the Literary Street Festival. In their open tents, there are programs, specially created for the festival. Among others there are Viivi Luik, Tõnu Õnnepalu, Kristiina Ehin, Karl Martin Sinijärv, Indrek Koff, Doris Kareva and others. You can participate in the quiz, take part of new book presentations, listen to cultural and literary discussions. There are also literary walks, book sales and intriguing exhibitions. Exciting activities for children all day long.
Tartu Street Food Festival
09 Sep
The Widget Factory
Telliskivi Creative City, Tallinn Street Food Festival, and the Widget Factory present: Tartu Street Food Festival. The biggest and most popular street food event in Estonia brings the widest selection of street food to Tartu: there are cafes of the Widget Factory, food trucks, pop-up restaurants, and alternative chefs.
Kuressaare Street Picnic
09 Sep
Kuressaare
It only happens once a year that Lossi Street in Kuressaare is full of picnic tables. The crowd is enjoying their food and drinks and dancing to the music. The cafes on the street are ready to help and serve you if you do not have your own picnic equipment.
Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare
05 Sep – 10 Sep
Kanuti Gildi SAAL
One by one, over 6 days, Forced Entertainment performers condense every Shakespeare play ever written into a series of 36 intimate and lovingly made miniatures, played out on a one-metre table-top using a collection of un-extraordinary everyday objects. Forced Entertainment have long had an obsession with virtual or described performance, exploring in different ways over the years the possibilities of conjuring extraordinary scenes, images and narratives using language alone. In a brand new direction for the company, Complete Works explores the dynamic force of narrative in a simple and idiosyncratic summary of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories and late plays, creating worlds as vivid as they are strange.
English Comedy Night – Brendon Burns & Craig Quartermaine
06 Sep /07 Sep
Athena Center/Von Krahl Theatre
September’s stand up show is one of the top events at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, “RACE OFF” with Australian comedians Brendon Burns and Craig Quartermaine. Brendon is no stranger to Estonia, he has been here three times before and was actually on an episode of Kodumäng with us where he managed to piss off Indrek Vaheoja and won a toaster for his efforts. Brendon is fast and intense, he has been performing around the globe for 27 years and has won best comedian at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Also, Brendon is white. Craig is an Australian Raw Comedy finalist and journalist and was once a chef’s apprentice. Since entering Raw Comedy in 2016 (the major newcomer award in Australia) this “charming ball of rage” has gone from strength to strength. Also, Craig is an Aboriginal Australian.
 
Photo exhibition: Louisa Marie Summer “Border Walks”
05 Sep – 28 Sep
Pärnu Central Library
In autumn 2016 Louisa Marie Summer from Germany, visited Estonia to explore the idea of local borders, both in Tallinn and Narva. Through her photographs, the artist captures, in her own artistic perspective, these traces that remain in urban daily life. At the core of the European project has always been an effort to reduce the significance of borders – international boundaries as well as educational, economic and social borders.
Tallinn Photomonth ’17
01 Sep – 29 Oct
Tallinn Art Hall
International contemporary art biennial Tallinn Photomonth ’17 introduces its programme by international and Estonian artists at various art venues in Tallinn and Narva. Tallinn Photomonth opened on 1 September with the group exhibition Image Drain curated by Anthea Buys at Tallinn Art Hall and the Museum of Photography.

What is the idea behind Tolm?
The idea of the festival is to create a platform where art and music meet in a critically entertaining form. We want to offer cool bands and performances to surprise the audience and to not let them escape with a whole skin. We want to make the audience think a bit. Perhaps, for a moment, they should even feel discomfort and confront their inner stranger to overcome it and to become a more broad-minded person.
I understand that the idea of moving to Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (CAME) started to grow when things went bad in Patarei complex. Is there a plan to hold the festival there also in the future?
CAME has always been in the air. In fact, CAME was presented in the festival program in 2011 when the program concerned Eastern European issues. Then the Rael Artel curated international exhibition Lost in Transition that studied and played with the East European identities took place at CAME.
Tolm is very eclectic. What scenes are represented this time? Line-up is impressive as ever but please give a short overview of what kind of music can be heard and what kind of performances can be seen?
There will be some good old punk, indie, shoegaze, electronica, techno, soul, and nouveau and post weirdos who combine all the above-mentioned styles. If Friday night belongs mostly to the artistic and indie bands then post punk sets the tone of the early evening of Saturday, and the late night till the morning is filled with performers and electronic artists who are using soul motifs. The festival will also feature a party of all parties – the Haigla Pidu, and the favorite party series of all techno freaks – Mürk.
There will be very different performances. The assortment features video-acoustic, as well as text and dance performances and numbers, in which case you can not actually tell if it is music, performance or joke. Tolm is trying to follow this thin line where different disciplines meet. The list of performance artists features choreographers Rene Köster and Henri Hütt, transgender researcher and photographer Alan Proosa, and performer and researcher Riina Maidre whose performance will also open the festival.
Please give three to five must see recommendations for Tolm.
You should definitely come and see the Australian soul-pop artist JOEL SARAKULA whose music is just so bright and good that it cleanses the soul. Also, you can’t miss the Siberian Russian hypnotic tribal cabaret rock band SHORTPARIS. Everyone who saw them at the Tallinn Music Week said it was the absolute top of TMW and a cathartic experience. Then you should definitely see the electronic live dub duo SOBRANIE 8 18 from St Petersburg, the Lithuanian nouveau jazz weirdness SHEEP GOT WAXED, Hannaliisa Uusmaa’s audiovisual soul pop ensemble HUNT, soul pop artists MALCOLN LINCOLN and FLORIAN WAHL, future punks ST CHEATERSBURG, etc.
Tolm has taken place several years already, in what direction has the festival evolved over the time?
The general idea of the festival hasn’t changed much but it seems to me that every year the program has become more sensitive and consistent. For example, this year we have a very decent art program which consists of two parts, performances, and an exhibition. The latter includes photos and (video) installations.
What issues does the festival’s art program address and who are the performers?
As alienation and fear of the foreign are ever-expanding phenomena both locally and globally, we are exploring various phenomena that can be placed under the common denominator – “the stranger”. What kind of feelings does a stranger evoke in those who perceive a stranger as a stranger, and also what kind of feelings does it evoke in a stranger who is perceived as a stranger and who oneself perceives oneself as a stranger? The stranger does not have to be just an exotic refugee from somewhere far away. The stranger can also be “our fellow man” who is wearing different clothes, eating different food, listening to a different kind of music or behaving differently in bed. The stranger is excited by the things that do not excite “me”. Things that I do not understand will make me feel uncomfortable. But one can also be a stranger for oneself. Maybe the stranger makes us feel uncomfortable because it reflects the stranger in ourselves. How much do we really know ourselves? Perhaps the fears and inconveniences that the stranger evokes in us are actually the fears of ourselves, that we do not really know ourselves and we are not complete.
The art program consists of two parts, exhibition, and performances. We spoke briefly about performance artists. The exhibition will feature JOHNSON & JOHNSON, MARKO MÄETAMM, MARGIT LÕHMUS, and KIWA, to name just a few.
What else happens at the festival?
On Saturday afternoon there will be a fair of records and band T-shirts. The entrance is free and the culmination of the fair arrives at 18.00 when the punk poet Freddy Grenzmann presents his debut poetry collection. The book and its presentation by the singer of a group Psychoterror may be one of the most exciting literary events of the year. On Saturday, there is also an exclusive exhibition, which is opened only during the festival and is free of charge, and the exotic movie program by Fifi.
More information about the event could be found from the culture.ee calendar and from Facebook.

One of our favourite times of the year has almost arrived and we are happy to share some recommendations for that, so you could also have the pleasure of the written word heard out loud. The literature festival “HeadRead” will start tomorrow and here are five hints, where to go and what to do, but there are many more exciting things happening, so keep your eyes open and let the literature feast begin!

• Jason Goodwin’s crime fiction workshop
  Saturday, 27 May at 13:00
  Tallinn Central Library
  International programme Workshop
  Original language: English

Must  be fast and register to get a spot there, but we can’t not recommend it, because it is such a gem. Let us imagine Sherlock Holmes at the HeadRead literary festival. He would probably become bored quickly, as he would be able to guess the topic of the talk based on the creases in the speakers’ clothes and the soles of their shoes, and would instead go to the Estonia Theatre to enjoy a violin concert. Let us imagine Kurt Wallander in the same position. He would probably not last long either, his secret wine stash would soon run out, his mobile would ring because his ex-wife has found a skull in her garden or has forgotten her medication. Mister Hercule Poirot would politely interrupt the event, gather everyone around him and after a brilliant monologue, identify the person who would love to be the first to get an autograph from the author. Since the appearance of these gentlemen in Tallinn in late spring is highly unlikely, everyone is free to fantasise about a crime novel plot that unfolds at a literary festival – actually, it would be best if it remained a fantasy. The best way to do that is to attend the crime fiction workshop on at the Tallinn Central Library, supervised by British historian and writer Jason Goodwin. The workshop by Goodwin (1964), whose five-book series on the Istanbul detective Yaşim has also appeared in Estonian, is a popular fixture on the festival schedule. Participation is subject to prior registration (from 10 May) by writing to info@headread.ee.

• Jonas Khemiri
  Saturday, 27 May at 14:00
  Estonian Writers’ Union
  Programme and Format: Conversation with writer
  Original language: English
  Translated to: Estonian

Jonas Hassen Khemiri, born in Sweden in 1978, is the internationally acclaimed author of four novels and six plays. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages, and his plays have been performed by over 100 companies around the world and received accolades including a Village Voice Obie Award for best script. His first two novels, One Eye Red and Montecore, were awarded several prizes in Sweden including best literary debut and the Swedish Radio Award for best novel of the year. His most recent novel, Everything I Don’t Remember, was awarded the August Prize 2015, Sweden’s most important and prestigious literary award. He lives in Stockholm with his family. Khemiri will talk to Christer Haglund, the head of the Estonian branch of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

• Louise O’Neill
  Saturday, 27 May at 13:00
  Estonian Writers’ Union
  Programme and Format: Conversation with writer
  Original language: English
  Translated to: Estonian

Louise O’Neill (1985) is an Irish writer. Her work is usually categorised as young adult, and The Guardian has named her as one of the best living young adult authors. O’Neill could also be considered a feminist writer because she candidly explores injustice against women and stereotypes about women. O’Neill’s debut novel Only Ever Yours (2014) is about today’s standards of beauty, which are often accompanied by subjecting women to patriarchal ideas. O’Neill’s second novel Asking for It focuses on an even more painful subject. It tells the story of a teenage girl living in a small Irish town, who becomes a victim of a gang rape. The novel has its roots in several prominent real-life rape cases and talks about the aftermath of such an act – the public humiliation and condemnation that can befall the victim. Louise O’Neill will talk to translator Kaisa Kaer.

• Catherine Merridale
  Sunday, 28 May at 18:00
  Estonian Writers’ Union
  Programme and Format: Conversation with writer
  Original language: English
  Translated to: Estonian

Catherine Merridale (1959) is a British historian who specialises in Russian history. Her first book to be published in Estonian, Ivan’s War, takes an unusual look at the experience of the Second World War by focusing on the lives of ordinary soldiers. Merridale looks behind the streams and statistics of Big History, analysing why and how ordinary Red Army soldiers endured at the front. Her book Red Fortress researchers the history of the Kremlin. She has talked about the enduring impression left by the golden domes and powerful red-brick walls of the Kremlin on her 18-year-old self when she was visiting Moscow for the first time. The Red Fortress takes a look at the varied, grand and dark history behind those walls. Merridale’s latest book Lenin on the Train (2016), is, as the title indicates, a passionate study of the pivotal year 1917 when the instigator of the Russian revolution embarked on a personal odyssey from Zürich to St Petersburg to have a forceful impact on history. Catherine Merridale will talk to history professor Karsten Brüggemann.

• Ann Cleeves
  Friday, 26 May at 15:00
  Estonian Writers’ Union
  Programme and Format: Conversation with writer
  Original language: English
  Translated to: Estonian

Ann Cleeves (1954) is a British crime author whose book sales are roughly the size of the entire population of Estonia. Her work features several thematic series; six murder mysteries from the 1990s comprise the Inspector Ramsay series – Inspector Stephen Ramsay is roaming the village landscape of Northumberland. The so-called Vera series stars detective Vera Stanhope. The Shetland series takes place on the rough islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. The first book of the series, Raven Black, is perhaps her most famous and won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime novel of the year in 2006. This year, the British Crime Writers’ Association awarded Cleeves the highest honour, their Diamond Dagger Award. Both the Shetland series and the Vera Stanhope series have been adapted for the small screen by the BBC as Shetland and Vera respectively. Ann Cleeves will talk about her work with British crime writer Jason Goodwin.

Rainer Sarnet’s new film „November” is a classical story about tragic love that is never consummated on the backdrop of a muddy and moth-eaten mytho-Estonian life.

The glittering surface of the water on the screen seems like a promise – we have reached a mirror world, where mythological is common. The dead walk with the living, human-size chickens whisk in the sauna, and, walking in the manor park at night, one might run into a goblin made of iron rods, carrying a bottle of vodka and shouting “Hello!” Kivirähk’s „Old Barny” reaches the silver screen in black-and-white, lit by bright projector lamps, resulting in high contrast that makes the viewer feel as if he sits in the front row in a theatre and gets a very close look on how the grimaces alter on the rough-hewn wrinkles of the actors. The most plastic performance is delivered by the face of Devil, buried under in a coat of powder and a thick moustache, challenged by his doublet-clad body jumping around the crossroads on a Waning Thursday. Senses will be haunted by the film’s dirty faces and witless smiles, many of which do not belong to professional actors, but were found in response to a call made in the local newspaper – we are looking for people who look like they come from the photos of Johannes Pääsuke.

The behaviour of peasants is governed by laziness, greed, and bile. Stupidity manifests itself as stubborn superstition. Their own view is, of course, that it is cleverness with which to deceive the priest and the landlord. The baron follows the sinful with a pained look, but probably accepts then that the earthlings will never be proper Christians, as he begins to make pointless jokes and resigns himself to playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the piano. At the same time, the valet with a bowl haircut takes the totally infatuated Hans to the bedroom of the baron’s sleepwalking daughter. The baroness, straying onto the manor roof in her sleep, and her bewitched lover are seen from the manor park by the heart-broken Werewolf Liina (Rea Lest), the depth of whose feelings convincingly portrays the conflict between a pure heart and the degenerate world.

If some of the more magical scenes remind one of the camera and montage jumps from “Bumpy”, then by the time Dogme is reached, the evil is no longer reflected mythologically. Despite the black humour accompanying the action, or rather, with its support, the gloominess of the observable world and its inhabitants becomes ever more oppressive. This anguish is not era-specific depressiveness arising from estrangement that can often be encountered in Estonian and Nordic films. This anguish manifests itself in a somewhat more authentic way: I would like to say that as a mouthful it is something more than world soup while remaining unmistakeably local at the same time.

The few characters whose souls have (temporarily?) been cleansed by love, sitting in a pool of water under apple trees and snowflakes through the night, feel like a breath of spring in this November. The snow and white colour seem to repeat as signs of soul. After outsmarting the plague, the snowfall seems to clean the earthlings of the dirt and bring relief. But relief does not tend to last long in this world.

Similarly to „Idiot”, Rainer Sarnet manages to portray the beauty in the squalid, eternally poor environment in “November” with painful precision. If you forgive the clumsy start, where the bullying of a calf is not justified by the content or anything else, one has to admit that „November” is a style-bold film, which pokes the national pride, risen over the edge of the bowl, in the right place to keep it from getting too full of itself, just like the novel “Old Barny” did.

JANUARY
1.–7.01., Tallinn 6TH BACHFEST TALLINN
1.–8.01., Tartu 4TH TARTU WINTER MUSIC FESTIVAL
7.–15.01., Pärnu PÄRNU CONTEMPORARY MUSIC DAYS
20.01.–2.04., across Estonia FESTIVAL „SCHOOL DANCE“
21.01., Tallinn INTSIKURMU WINTER FESTIVAL
21.–22.01., Elva MONOMANIA
25.–29.01., Tallinn DOCPOINT TALLINN
27.01.–5.02., Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Jõhvi, Saint Petersburg MUSTONENFEST
FEBRUARY
3.–11.02., Tallinn 10TH TALLINN WINTER FESTIVAL
4.02., Tallinn 4TH ESTONIAN JEW’S HARP FESTIVAL
4.–5.02., Tallinn SIMPLE SESSION 17
6.–10.02., Rakvere RAKVERE HIGH SCHOOL FILM FESTIVAL
17.–19.02., Viljandi STUDENT THEATRE DAYS
MARCH
3.–12.03., Pärnu, Pärnu County CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH MUSIC FESTIVAL „MUSIC JAM“
7.–10.03., Tartu, Viljandi, Tallinn TUDENGIJAZZ
8.–12.03., Tallinn LADYFEST TALLINN
16.–17.03., Tallinn TALLINN FASHION WEEK
18.03., Kilingi-Nõmme 4TH NATIONAL MALE ENSEMBLES FESTIVAL
18.03., Valga FESTIVAL OF ESTONIAN MUSIC VIDEOS
18.–20.03., Kuressaare NATIONAL SCHOOL THEATRE FESTIVAL „SAAREMAA MINI THEATRE DAYS“
18.–21.03., Tallinn EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL „CECILIANA“
21.–25.03., Tartu FESTIVAL OF VISUAL CULTURE „WORLD FILM“
23.–24.03., Viljandi FESTIVAL „OWN STORY“
27.03.–2.04., Tallinn TALLINN MUSIC WEEK
APRIL
April–June, Tallinn 7TH TALLINN APPLIED ART TRIENNIAL
6.–13.04., Tallinn ESTONIAN MUSIC DAYS
7.04., Tallinn FESTIVAL „ACOUSSION SPRING“
14.–23.04., Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Narva 11TH JAPANESE ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL (JAFF)
15.–16.04., Lüllemäe KARULA FOLK
17.–23.04., Tartu 16TH SUPILINNA DAYS
18.04.–26.05., Tallinn KORFEST
20.–23.04., Tallinn 15TH INTERNATIONAL CHOIR FESTIVAL „TALLINN 2017“
21.–22.04., Mooste 17TH ESTONIAN FOLK MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS FESTIVAL „MOISEKATSI ELOHELÜ“
21.–30.04., across Estonia TALLINN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL „JAZZKAAR“
21.04.–23.07., Tallinn 7TH TALLINN APPLIED ART TRIENNAL
22.04.–23.04., Tallinn FESTIVAL „LET’S START DANCING“
23.–29.04., Viljandi, Viljandi County DANCE WEEK
24.–30.04., Tartu TARTU STUDENT DAYS: SPRING 2017
28.–29.04., Tallinn TRADITIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL „SABATANTS“
28.–29.04., Tallinn TALLINN COFFEE FESTIVAL
28.–30.04., Haapsalu HAAPSALU HORROR & FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL (HÕFF)
29.04.–7.05., Jõhvi 10TH JÕHVI BALLET FESTIVAL
MAY
4.–6.05., Tartu AUTHOR’S SONG FESTIVAL „MAILAUL“
4.–6.05., Viljandi, Tallinn, Tartu CULTURE DESSANT
5.–12.05., Pärnu PÄRNU INTERNATIONAL OPERA MUSIC FESTIVAL „PROMFEST“
6.05., Viljandi ELECTRONIC FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL
8.–13.05., Tartu, Värska TARTU LITERATURE FESTIVAL „PRIMA VISTA“
8.–14.05., Tartu KARLOVA DAYS
11.05., Tartu 15TH NATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH WITH SPECIAL NEEDS „SAVILIND“
13.05., Lao RÄIMEWEST HERRING FESTIVAL
13.–14.05., Kihlepa DANDELION FESTIVAL
18.–20.05., Tartu TARTU MUSIC FESTIVAL „INDIEFEST“
19.–21.05., Türi 40TH TÜRI FLOWER FAIR
19.05.–25.08., Tallinn TALLINN FLOWER FESTIVAL
20.05., across Estonia NIGHT OF MUSEUMS
20.–21.05., Sillamäe INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL „JAZZTIME“
24.–28.05., Tallinn TALLINN LITERATURE FESTIVAL „HEADREAD“
27.05., Hiiumaa Island TUULEKALA FESTIVAL
27.–28.05., Jäneda JÄNEDA GARDEN AND FLOWER DAYS
27.05.–1.07., Haapsalu HAAPSALU GRAPHIC DESIGN FESTIVAL
30.05.–3.06., Tallinn INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ORIENTAL MUSIC „ORIENT“
31.05.–4.06., Tallinn 36TH TALLINN OLD TOWN DAYS
JUNE
June–September, Island of Naissaar, across Estonia NARGENFESTIVAL
1.–3.06., Saue, Tallinn 15TH INTERNATIONAL YOUTH RHYTHM MUSIC FESTIVAL „VISIOON“
1.–4.06., Narva NARVA TOWN DAYS
1.–4.06., Tallinn INTERNATIONAL VISUAL THEATRE FESTIVAL „NUQ TREFF“
2.06., Kärdla 15TH HIIUMAA CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL
2.–3.06., Haapsalu ITALIAN WINE PARTY IN HAAPSALU
2.–4.06., Narva 11TH BLACKSMITHS’ FESTIVAL „BAROQUE SMITHERY“
2.–4.06., Türi TÜRI SPRING FESTIVAL
3.06., Kohila KAPAROCK
3.06., Häädemeeste 12TH NORTH LIVONIAN FESTIVAL
3.06., Sõmeru COUNTRY LIFE FESTIVAL
3.–4.06., Lange ESTONIAN AVIATION DAYS
7.–10.06., Tartu TARTU NATURE FESTIVAL
8.–11.06., Rakvere RAKVERE TOWN DAYS
10.–11.06., Tallinn TALLINN STREET FOOD FESTIVAL & TADAA! FESTIVAL
10.–11.06., Haapsalu NARGENFESTIVAL’S KREEK DAYS
10.–12.06., Saue 20TH DAYS OF CREATION AND IMPROVISATION
12.–16.06., Tallinn 12TH TALLINN GUITAR FESTIVAL
12.–18.06., Tartu, across Estonia STREET ART FESTIVAL „STENCIBILITY“
14.–22.06., Tallinn FESTIVAL „MEXTONIA“
15.–18.06., Hiiumaa Island SÕRU JAZZ
16.–18.06., Kuressaare TIMELESS MUSIC FESTIVAL
16.–18.06., Värska SETO FOLK „TOWARDS THE WOODS“
17.–18.06., Vastseliina 23RD COUNTRY FOLK FAIR
17.–23.06., Suure-Jaani 20TH SUURE-JAANI MUSIC FESTIVAL
26.–30.06., Peipsimaa 4TH PEIPSIMAA ORGAN FESTIVAL
28.06.–1.07., Haapsalu HAAPSALU TCHAIKOVSKY FESTIVAL
28.06.–1.07., Tsiistre FINNO-UGRIC FILM FESTIVAL (FUFF)
28.06.–1.07., Muhu Island, Saare County 21ST INTERNATIONAL MUHU FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL „JUU JÄÄB“
28.06.–9.07., Rapla County 25TH RAPLA CHURCH MUSIC FESTIVAL
29.06., Tartu TARTU CITY DAY
29.06.–1.07., Pühajärve RETROBEST FESTIVAL
29.06.–1.07., Pärnu PÄRNU HANSEATIC DAYS
29.06.–1.07., Pärnu INTERNATIONAL STREET ORGAN FESTIVAL
30.06.–1.07., Vana-Vigala HARD ROCK CAMP
30.06.–2.07., Tallinn 12TH ESTONIAN YOUTH SONG AND DANCE CELEBRATION „MINA JÄÄN“ („I WILL STAY“)
JULY
1.–30.07., Kabli KABLI SUNSET FESTIVAL
3.–16.07., Pärnu, across Estonia 31ST PÄRNU INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY AND ANTHROPOLOGY FILM FESTIVAL
4.–8.07., Saaremaa Island THE SONOROUS SOUNDS OF THE ORGANS OF SAAREMAA
4.–9.07., Ida-Viru County 19TH SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF SEVEN TOWNS
5.–8.07., Tallinn ÕLLESUMMER FESTIVAL
5.–9.07., Haapsalu 24TH HAAPSALU EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
6.–9.07., Tallinn 17TH MEDIEVAL DAYS
6.–9.07., Võru 23RD VÕRU FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL
6.–11.07., Tartu FESTIVAL „GLASPERLENSPIEL“
7.–8.07., Toomasmäe MUSIC AND CULTURE FESTIVAL „SETO MIDSUMMER EVE’S BONFIRE“
7.–9.07., Hiiumaa Island 19TH HIIUMAA CHAMBER MUSIC DAYS
7.–9.07., Kihnu Island KIHNU SEA FESTIVAL
7.–9.07., Tartu TARTU HANSEATIC DAYS
7.–9.07., Kilingi-Nõmme KILINGI-NÕMME TOWN DAYS
7.–9.07., Vormsi Island HERITAGE DAYS OF ESTONIAN ISLANDS
7.–10.07., Pärnu PÄRNU HARMONICA FESTIVAL
7.–14.07., Viljandi 25TH NOTAFE
8.07., Lindi FEAST OF OUR VILLAGE
9.07., Võsu GEORG OTS FESTIVAL
9.–14.07., Viljandi VILJANDI EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
10.–16.07., Võsu VÕSU MUSIC DAYS
14.07., Varbuse SOUTHEAST ESTONIA’S 2ND PREJUDICE FESTIVAL
14.–15.07., Nõmmküla INTERNATIONAL ART FESTIVAL “FUTU MUHU. 100 YEARS. 2017”
14.–15.07., Võsu VÕSU JAZZ
14.–16.07., Tartu PUNK & ROCK FESTIVAL
14.–22.07., Kuressaare SAAREMAA OPERA DAYS
15.07., Võsu VÕSU JAZZ
15.–18.07., Tallinn TALLINN MARITIME DAYS
20.–23.07., Hiiumaa Island 13TH HIIUMAA FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL „HIIU FOLK“
21.–22.07., Kajamaa FESTIVAL ACOUSSION LIVE 2017
21.–22.07., Ostrova OSTROVA FESTIVAL
21.–23.07., Varbla WEEKEND IN VARBLA
22.07., Pärnu FESTIVAL OF CHEERFUL CHILDREN
22.07., Tõrva TÕRVA SPELL FESTIVAL
22.–23.07., Haapsalu YOGA FESTIVAL
22.–23.07., Narva TWO SIDES OF THE HERB
25.–30.07., Mustjala MUSTJALA FESTIVAL
27.–30.07., Viljandi 25TH VILJANDI FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL
28.–29.07., Rannapungerja LIGHTHOUSE CONTSERT
28.–30.07., Võru VÕRU CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL „EARTH RINGS OF JOY“
28.–30.07., Vormsi Island ST. OLAF’S DAY EVENTS ON VORMSI
29.07., Võsu VÕSU BEACH FESTIVAL
29.–30.07., Jäneda ESTONIAN FARM DAYS
30.07., Haapsalu FESTIVAL „CHILDHOOD MAGIC“
31.07.–6.08., Käina HIIUMAA DANCE FESTIVAL
AUGUST
1.–5.08., Kuressaare 23RD KURESSAARE CHAMBER MUSIC DAYS
3.–6.08., Tartu 12TH TARTU INTERNATIONAL WIND BAND FESTIVAL „MÜRTSUB PILL“
3.–6.08., Eivere, Paide 5TH EIVERE PIANO FESTIVAL
4.–5.08., Pähklimäe KUKEMURU AMBIENT FESTIVAL
4.–5.08., Pärnu 20TH PÄRNU GUILD DAYS
4.–5.08., Haapsalu FESTIVAL „AUGUST BLUES“
4.–5.08., Põlva INTSIKURMU FESTIVAL
4.–5.08., Lutike LEIGO LAKE MUSIC FESTIVAL
4.–6.08., Pühalepa 6TH PÜHALEPA MUSIC FESTIVAL
4.–6.08., Palmse & other villages in the Lahemaa National Park 10TH LAHEMAA BAGPIPE DAYS
4.–13.08., Tallinn BIRGITTA FESTIVAL
4.–13.08., Tallinn 31ST TALLINN INTERNATIONAL ORGAN FESTIVAL
7.–12.08., Tartu TARTU LOVE FILM FESTIVAL „TARTUFF“
8.–13.08., Lihula LIHULA CULTURE DAYS
8.–13.08., Varbola 21ST VARBOLA WOOD DAYS „VARBOLA WOOD“
10.–12.08., Kuressaare KURESSAARE MARITIME DAYS
10.–17.08., Pärnu PÄRNU MUSIC FESTIVAL
11.–12.08., Paide OPINION FESTIVAL
11.–13.08., Käsmu VIRU FOLK
11.–13.08., Haapsalu WHITE LADY FESTIVAL
11.–13.08., Narva HISTORY FESTIVAL „NARVA BATTLE 2017“
12.08., Pärnu SLEEPLESS IN AUGUST
12.08., Tartu TARTU FOOD FESTIVAL
13.08., Lihula 7TH LIHULA FLOWER EMBROIDERY FESTIVAL
14.–20.08., Võru E. TAMME VÕRU WIND INSTRUMENT FESTIVAL
16.–19.08., Tartu URBAN FESTIVAL „UIT“
18.–19.08., Võru VÕRU TOWN DAYS
18.–19.08., Tartu EMAJÕGI RIVER FESTIVAL
18.–20.08., Põlva County ECOFESTIVAL
18.–20.08., Ruhnu Island RUHNURAHU FESTIVAL
18.08.–17.09., Viljandi VILJANDI ART FESTIVAL„QQ“
19.08., Kassari HIIU FISH AND BEER FESTIVAL
19.08., Kuremaa GARLIC FESTIVAL
19.–20.08., Järva-Jaani FILM ROLL FESTIVAL
20.08., Tahkuranna PICKLED CUCUMBER FESTIVAL
21.–23.08., Haapsalu CHORALE MARATHON
21.–30.08., Tallinn 13TH TALLINN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
23.–27.08., Tallinn FESTIVAL „TOWERS OF TALLINN“
24.–26.08., Tallinn WE LOVE THE 90S
24.–26.08., Tartu FESTIVAL IN APARAADITEHAS
25.–26.08., Tallinn ROTERMANN RESTAURANT FESTIVAL
25.–27.08., Pärnu INTERNATIONAL SLAVIC CULTURE FESTIVAL „SVETOCH“
26.08., Tallinn TELLISKIVI FLEA FESTIVAL
26.08., Tõstamaa DAY OF DISAPPEARING? CINEMA
26.08., Nõva NÕVA FLOUNDER FESTIVAL
26.08., across Estonia NIGHT OF ANCIENT LIGHTS
26.–27.08., Narva PRESERVED FOOD FESTIVAL „SUMMER INTO THE JAR!“
SEPTEMBER
September, Tartu TARTU STUDENT DAYS: AUTUMN 2017
September–October, Tallinn TALLINN PHOTOMONTH
2.–3.09., Tallinn SEASON OPENING FESTIVAL „ESTONIAN NATIONAL OPERA THEATRE FAIR“
4.–10.09., Tartu ESTONIAN THEATRE FESTIVAL „DRAAMA“
6.–10.09., Narva NARVA OPERA DAYS CONTEMPART
8.–10.09., Haapsalu NOSTALGIA DAYS
9.09., Tallinn LITERARY STREET FESTIVAL
9.09., Tartu TARTU STREET FOOD FESTIVAL
13.–17.09., Tallinn TALLINN ARCHITECURE BIENNALE TAB 2017
15.–16.09., Tihemetsa MUSHROOM FESTIVAL
15.–16.09., Rapla CULTURE FESTIVAL „SÄRIN“ („SIZZLE“)
15.–17.09., Viljandi VILJANDI MUSIC WALK
20.–21.09., Tallinn LIGHT WALKS IN KADRIORG
20.–24.09., Lihula, Haapsalu, Tallinn 15TH MATSALU NATURE FILM FESTIVAL (MAFF)
21.–23.09., Tallinn TILT INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL
23.09., Vormsi Island SURSTRÖMMINGFEST
23.–24.09., Tartu JAPANESE POP CULTURE FESTIVAL „ANIMATSURI“
24.–29.09., Tartu, across Estonia RESEARCHERS’ NIGHT FESTIVAL
25.09.–1.10., Tallinn 12TH TALLINN DESIGN FESTIVAL „DESIGN NIGHT“
28.–30.09., Tartu TARTU CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH LITERATURE FESTIVAL
29.–30.09., Kihnu Island KIHNU VIOLIN FESTIVAL
OCTOBER
3.–6.10., Tallinn TALLINN COMEDY FESTIVAL
5.–11.10., Tallinn MOEKUNSTIKINO – FASHION DESIGN CINEMA
5.–17.10., Narva, Sillamäe, Tallinn, Tartu THEATRE FESTIVAL „GOLDEN MASK IN ESTONIA“
6.–8.10., Tartu INTERNATIONAL AUTHOR’S SONG FESTIVAL „MUSIC OF THE FALLING LEAF“
7.10., Nõo FESTIVAL OF LIGHT
8.10., Rakvere 14TH NATIONAL TEACHERS’ MUSIC DAYS
9.–29.10., across Estonia FILM FESTIVAL „CINEMA TO THE COUNTRY“
10.–14.10., Viljandi VILJANDI GUITAR FESTIVAL
12.–14.10., Tallinn TALLINN FASHION WEEK
12.–15.10., Tartu 22ND INTERNATIONAL TARTU EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL „ORIENT ET OCCIDENT“
12.–15.10., Tartu INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT AND STUDENT THEATRE FESTIVAL „A-FESTIVAL“
16.–18.10., Viljandi FESTIVAl „THEATRE FOR THE YOUNG VIEWER“
16.–22.10., across Estonia PAN-FINNO-UGRIAN DAYS
19.–22.10., Tõrva TÕRVA DOKFEST
21.–22.10., Valga 4TH INTERNATIONAL POP/JAZZ CHOIR CONTEST AND FESTIVAL „LAULURAGIN“
26.10., Tallinn MEETINGS WITH TARKOVSKY
26.10.–28.10. Pärnu 35TH PÄRNU ACCORDION MUSIC FESTIVAL
27.10.–1.11., Tartu, Tallinn INTERNATIONAL MODERN MUSIC FESTIVAL „AFEKT“
NOVEMBER
7.–12.11., Viimsi VIIMSI HAPPY JAZZ FESTIVAL
9.–12.11., Tartu TARTU JAZZ AND RHYTHM MUSIC FESTIVAL „IDEEJAZZ“
10.–12.11., Tartu TARTU FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
16.–19.11., Tallinn ST MARTIN’S DAY FAIR
17.–26.11., Tallinn CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL „JUST FILM“
17.11.–3.12., across Estonia BLACK NIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL (PÖFF)
21.–26.11., Tallinn SHORT FILMS AND ANIMATION FESTIVAL „PÖFF SHORTS“
25.–26.11., Rakvere 16TH JAAN PAKK YOUNG MUSICIANS’ CHAMBER ENSEMBLE FESTIVAL
25.11.2017–7.01.2018, across Estonia CHRISTMAS MUSIC FESTIVAL „CHURCH HOLIDAYS IN THE LAND OF MARY“
November–december, across Estonia CHRISTMAS JAZZ FESTIVAL
DECEMBER
December, Tartu CHRISTMAS CITY TARTU
8.–10.12., Rakvere DARKLAND FIRE
9.12., Tartu STREET DANCE FESTIVAL „BATTLE OF EST“
Read more about upcoming festivals in Estonia in 2017!

Kai Aareleid, Holger Kaints and Ilmar Taska deal with the 1940s
in their newest novels.

Discussing the relationship between memories and history somewhat resembles the debate over which came first, the chicken or the egg. Although there is no point in trying to reach a final conclusion, nor is it worthwhile taking the debate too seriously, it is nevertheless clear that history and memories depend on each other. You could probably say that, on the one hand, history is reflected in memories and, on the other, memories help to construct history. Memory without history is simply storytelling, but history without memories is dry, factual crumbs.

Thus, it is not strange that historians of all eras have striven to embellish their works with true-to-life details, while fiction writers conversely tend to rely on the work of historians in order to weave together with facts that which makes history the story of us all: life itself.

It is astonishing that in the spring of 2016 three novels were published in Estonia that all speak of the grimmest times in 20th-century Estonian history: the annexation of the Estonian state, World War II, and the Stalinist era. Holger Kaints (1957) begins at the earliest point; his Uinuv maa (Drowsy Land) starts in 1938. The starting point for the central narrative of Kai Aareleid’s (1972) Linnade põletamine (We All Fall Down) is the pivotal 1941, although there are flashbacks to the era of Estonia’s first independence. Ilmar Taska’s (1953) Pobeda 1946 (A Car Called Victory) commences in the year included in the Estonian-language title, which is also the year that Kaints’ work ends. Aareleid’s chronological reach is broader: the novel begins and ends in 2013, but the main plot extends from the early 1940s to the early 1960s.

Thus, the three authors all handle basically the same years, each focusing on different perspectives in their equally tragic stories.

*
The title of Holger Kaints’ novel is programmatic. In one respect, “Drowsy Land” alludes to the perception of one of the book’s central characters: a young communist recently released from prison, who sees Estonia as a lethargic little pond ignorant of its own fate. However, Kaints’ book has a more serious historical-political dimension: it establishes a direct connection between the autocratic rule of Estonian President Konstantin Päts – termed the Era of Silence – and the two occupations that followed. Kaints’ message is merciless: the former caused the latter, and society’s submissive and compliant transition from independence to occupation became possible in thanks to political “drowsiness”.

Kaints’ perspective is relatively unexpected: the protagonist is a young woman unconcerned with the events that are transpiring. She marries a staunch communist, giving the author an opportunity to address the fateful last years of Estonian independence from the standpoint of communists enraged by authoritarianism.

At the center of Ilmar Taska’s Pobeda 1946, conversely, is a relatively naive but sharp-minded boy who registers everything happening around him in detail, but is unable to competently differentiate between good and bad. As a result, the work’s main characters – an NKVD1 agent, the boy’s mother, who has nationalist sympathies, and his mother’s former prima donna half-sister, who despises the regime –
as well as secondary characters, including orphanage wards and workers, feature more as embodiments of different principles than they do as individuals.

The protagonist in Kai Aareleid’s Linnade põletamine is likewise a child: a girl named Tiina, who grows to adulthood over the course of the novel. Since the unfolding and development of her personality is framed by a time predisposed to silence, Tiina’s primary traits are her attentiveness to minor details, good memory, and skill at perceiving the causes behind events, even though she lacks the knowledge and experience needed to rationally interpret them.

Although the three works share great contextual similarities, Taska’s and Aareleid’s novels intersect more with each other, while Kaints’ stands at a slight distance in many senses. Particularly striking in both Pobeda 1946 and Linnade põletamine is the child’s perspective, which not only connects these two books, but also brings to mind a legendary work of Estonian literature: Viivi Luik’s (1946) Seitsmes rahukevad (The Seventh Spring of Peace, 1985). It likewise contains a view of the world through the eyes of a child and, as one might suspect from the title, its plot runs until the early 1950s.

One question forcefully arises: why have Estonian writers returned to that period now, during the latter half of the second decade of the 21st century? And why from a child’s perspective? Did Luik leave anything out? Had the Soviet era pressed its stamp on Seitsmes rahukevad, forbidding the author to speak candidly?

Perhaps, surprisingly, an answer to these questions can be found in the one novel of the three that features not a child, but an adult woman at the center of the plot: Holger Kaints’ Uinuv maa.

*
When speaking about writing Pobeda 1946, Ilmar Taska (whose background is in film-making) has admitted that he basically proceeded from the rules of cinema, which demand a coherent plot and characters with whom anyone can identify (one of the novel’s main characters is a British BBC journalist, so that Western readers can find something and someone familiar in the story, set behind the Iron Curtain). Similarly, much of Taska’s and his family’s own personal history can be found in the book: the author was born to deportee parents in 1953 in Kirov, Siberia.

Kai Aareleid has likewise said that much of Linnade põletamine is her own family history and, although the work contains mainly micro-historical material and post-war Tartu folklore, the focus is not on history in the wider sense, but on one family, seen through the eyes first of a child, then a teenage girl, and ultimately a young woman.

In the epilogue of Holger Kaints’ Uinuv maa, the author mentions stories heard in his childhood, and so the book is also connected to a particular family history. But at the same time, the author cites historians and reference works, of which Jaak Valge’s extensive study Punased I (The Reds I, which addresses the Estonian Marxist movement and its leading figures) especially stands out. Reading this and other historical volumes gave Kaints an opportunity to delve into the projects and activities of Estonia’s former communist elite, as well as to describe with psychological conviction and empathy the characters who had their first success in 1940, and beginning in the autumn of 1944 applied themselves with merciless determination to building communism in Estonia. “Bourgeoisie manure will be the fertilizer of our bright future,” one says with satisfaction, a phrase with which Kaints certainly captures his characters’ mentality.

Although Kai Aareleid’s book – whose misery-rich post-war Tartu is shown with extreme realism – is not short on abstractions, a convincing milieu, or compelling, true-to-the-era characters (nor is Ilmar Taska’s, who manages to convey the paranoid atmosphere of 1946 with terrifying clarity), diverging goals are nevertheless apparent between the two and Kaints. Specifically, Aareleid and Taska focus more on plot: for the former, the content is of equal importance to the way in which it is presented; for the latter, scenes with tremendous impact, memorable backdrops, and a rapidly branching storyline are what are important. It probably would be an exaggeration to say that Kaints is intrigued by the historical-political dimension, but his book can truly be read as a polemical commentary on the works of Estonian historians, and on a particular debate that has been going on in Estonian society since the late 1980s, fading from time to time, only to surface again with greater intensity. It is a debate that can be condensed into a single agonizing question: was the silent surrender of 1939 right and inevitable, or could an alternative have been found?

*
This same agonizing question also offers an indirect answer to why any Estonian author would, in the early 21st century, turn back to Stalin, Hitler, deportations, and genocide in the first place. It is obvious that we will never know whether Taska, Aareleid, and Kaints would have been able to write these books in 1985. At the same time, it is also clear that every generation not only wishes to tell its own story in its own particular way, but in a broader sense every era needs that. And this is true not only in regard to the problems that directly impact the given era, but more generally.

Perhaps now, when those who were children during World War II and the Stalinist terrors are becoming ever more important as we think back on the events, it is the right time to allow children’s voices to speak. And authors for whom this isn’t enough, who wish to do something more (such as focus on the psyches of communist collaborators, as in Kaints’ case), must seek out other sources than those that are written or passed down orally in families. And this is precisely where the complicated interplay between history and memories comes in: a game in which it is impossible and, in truth, pointless to choose sides. Memory, with its passionate closeness, trumps the chilliness of a scholarly historical treatment, but we are nevertheless only able to conjecture about the greatest abstractions thanks to the factual work of historians.

Considering the very unique position of a child as witness to an era (children may register uncomfortable minute details of the adult world, and comprehend them only decades later, in adulthood), the Chairman of the Estonian Writers’ Union Tiit Aleksejev raised an excellent question during a radio program: if the depiction of war and post-war life through the eyes of a child has now been dissected in the settings of Tallinn (Taska), Tartu (Aareleid), and the countryside (Luik), then can we expect the 1960s, for instance, to be handled next? Perhaps. The Estonian classic Mati Unt’s 1963 novel Hüvasti, kollane kass (Goodbye, Yellow Cat) accompanied several generations of young Estonians through their teenage years, but it would be exciting if someone tackled that decade in all its upheaval, contradiction, and of course romanticism anew. There’s enough material to go around. And just as Kai Aareleid and Ilmar Taska have proven as memory writers and Holger Kaints as a history writer, Estonia certainly boasts authors capable of crossing the divide between decades, each reviving with their own unique styles and methods a time which hasn’t actually disappeared but is merely forgotten, in both its pain and its beauty.

Peeter Helme (1978) is an Estonian writer and journalist, and anchors the Estonian Public Broadcasting’s literary radio programs. Helme has published five novels. The latest of these, Sügaval läänes (Deep in the West, 2015), is a crime story set in the industrial Ruhr Valley.

I’ll start with children’s assessment. We had a group of third-grade students draft a list of who they believed were important public figures in Estonia. We used the list to make a presentation for our foreign pen-pals entitled “Famous Estonians”. Tied for first place in the children’s ranking were Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a teenage world-champion freestyle skier, and Leelo Tungal. Clearly, Tungal is not an “ordinary” children’s author, but a symbolic figure.

Tungal’s writings deal with children and their families and span the media of common reading materials, schoolbooks (her ABC-primer characters Adam and Anna have endured for decades), song repertoires, journalism, and public performances. Although the author has written many librettos and drama pieces, she has definitely enjoyed her greatest public fame at the Estonian Song Festivals, at which song authors are called to take the stage before hundreds of thousands of cheering and clapping audience members expressing delight with an intensity uncommon for Estonians. Tungal’s lyrics have been used in pieces for both children’s and adult choirs. Thus, she belongs to all Estonians, and her works can be found in most of our homes. She can frequently be seen speaking on behalf of children and as a patron of children’s protection and family events.

However, Leelo Tungal’s name is probably associated most with children’s literature. Her latest thick collection of children’s poems is entitled Südasuvi (Midsummer), and in it the author’s pen has truly glided luxuriantly and liberally in a summery way. Naturally, she also includes poems about winter and other seasons: as a magazine editor (Tungal has worked at children’s magazines since 1973 and has edited her own publication, Hea Laps, since 1994), she knows very well that an author should write children poems about every time and topic.

Tungal’s children’s poetry is exuberant: she often finds multiple good ways to develop the same motif, and each is led to a resolution that is precise. Her thirst for rhythm and vigor in producing sound elements are irresistible. It is as if poetry is a physiological state for Tungal: her primary form of speaking.

Leelo Tungal has discussed about how she got her name: in June 1947, the year she was born, the XII Estonian Song Festival was held in Tallinn, and one of the more popular choral songs performed was “Leelo”. The word signifies Estonian folk singing in general, and Leelo Tungal can certainly be regarded as a folk bard. Still, whatever is topical in Estonian society at the moment can always be found echoing in her poems.

Tungal’s children’s poetry is upbeat: you could even say that it’s hard to find any of her children’s texts that don’t contain something funny. This aspect fascinates children. Jokes are infectious and boost courage. Jokes often arise from unexpected associations, and it’s great to re-read a story to experience a joke anew. Tungal’s stories, which are built on alliteration and shifted meaning, are not always easy to understand, but once you pick up on the joke, you want to re-read the text again and again. At the same time, the poet perennially has a smile and a candidly compassionate word for those who have had a rough time in life: a child who is better understood by his or her dog than by other people, a child who has no father to take to the school’s Father’s Day celebration, etc. Tungal’s stories often include unexpected twists. A mother and father take a break from their children and set off on a trip, but while they’re away they sadly hug the kids’ teddy bears. The narrator encourages a teacher to hit him (“Hit me, dear teacher / with your soft hand…”), but in the last stanza, it turns out that the narrator is a ball, with which the teacher hasn’t had time to play in a long while.

In Tungal’s children’s stories, she calls on the reader to notice and resolve problems: she is riveted by the theme of children whose lives lack something important, such as parental care or friendship. Nevertheless, her storytelling always carries a cheerful tone.

Just like many other very talented children’s writers, Leelo Tungal shouts out: “don’t just lock me away in the children’s room!” Luckily, her poetry collections for adults have also received favorable reviews. She has been praised for her formulaic precision and sincerity, and she is fearlessly open: her entire life, as well as contemporary cultural history and social life, have been recorded with a genuineness that is occasionally painful.

Some of Tungal’s poems have undergone odd developments since they were first penned. When she was just a schoolgirl, Tungal wrote Oma laulu ei leia ma üles
(I Cannot Find My Song), a poem that carries the dreams and yearnings of a young woman. A few years later, it was used as the lyrics for an exceptionally beautiful song written by the renowned composer Valter Ojakäär and performed gently, hauntingly by Heli Lääts – one of the most popular stage figures at that time. Over the last decade, however, the song is better known from the cover performed by the folk-metal band Metsatöll, in which it has a wild and aggressive character. In 2008, the Metsatöll version of Oma laulu ei leia ma üles became the theme song of the TV series Tuulepealne maa (Windswept Land), which deals with the Estonian nation’s hardship-filled history. A young woman’s secret thoughts were transformed into a piece in which the difficulty of finding her “own song” signifies the problems of national self-awareness, and the worry about the fragility of identity. Just as the TV show’s title conveys Estonians’ place in a windswept land, so can every twist in history force many of us to “sing another’s song”: to go along with a new regime. But perhaps that meaning similarly shows that in the somewhat downcast reflections of her younger days, Leelo Tungal struck an emotional chord in all Estonians.

Overall, a very clear boundary exists between Tungal’s poetry for children and for adults: the door to the children’s room is safely closed when the adults walk alone.

Even so, there is occasionally a sense of border violation. As a singer in a mixed choir, I’ve rehearsed for many Song Festivals Urmas Lattikas’ song Väike maa (Little Land), the lyrics of which are a slightly truncated version of Leelo Tungal’s poem See väike maa (This Little Land). The poem was published in a collection of children’s poetry, defining its genre. Among the other lines carrying the spirit of the Estonian homeland is: “where the winter sun sets anew as it rises, where the school path is lined with dark ice like glass”. During choir practices, we naturally sing phrases over and over, dozens of times, and I always strive to imagine (working in education, I admittedly have a lovely image of school paths frozen in my memory) what my fellow singers – those stern and businesslike representatives of respectable professions – are thinking and feeling about those words. The song rings out, reverent and sacred. Tungal has managed to convey a specific, very ordinary image from childhood memories which brings a wide array of people together.

Tungal’s most important work of prose –
a trilogy, the first two parts of which have been released so far: Seltsimees laps (Comrade Child) and Samet ja saepuru (Velvet and Sawdust) – is rooted in the attempt to bring childhood memories to life with exceptional vividness. Hopefully, the third part will soon be finished. At the core of the autobiographical series’ plot is the arrest of Leelo’s mother, a school director, in 1951, as part of Stalin’s ideological cleansing. The author tells the entire story from her own point of view: at the beginning of the trilogy, she is a young girl just turning four years old. When discussing the book, Tungal has emphasized the fact that 150 teachers were arrested at that time. (A larger wave of deportations had taken place in 1949, when more than 20,000 people were taken from Estonia.) Since quite a number of memoirs have been published by famous Estonian cultural and public figures (as well as by lesser-known authors), one might ask what makes Tungal’s story special.

On the literary level, Tungal is exceptional for her acute attention to detail and very graceful understanding of the possibilities offered by writing for children.

As the author herself has explained, she has attempted to write the story several times over the course of her life, and now, in her later years and possessing a wealth of life-experience, she has decided in favor of conveying memories from the mouth of a child. Some readers have expressed doubt about whether such a young child would be capable of remembering everything that happened to and around her in such great detail. However, one must take into account the fact that Tungal was an only child and spent a great deal of time in the company of adults, who frequently forgot that she was listening and consequently allowed a thing or two not meant for children’s ears to slip. One noteworthy individual was Leelo’s father, who was also a teacher and an active cultural organizer in the community. In spite of the tragic situation, he managed to think of his child’s needs: building an environment for her that was as safe as possible, encouraging her to see joy and continuance in life, and – just like the other family members – helping the future writer to mentally record and give consideration to that sad period.

For the most part, children’s memories consist of what they are told. However, many people who write for a young audience can confirm that if someone consciously delves into his or her childhood memories, then new doors will start to open, as in a gallery, causing the adult to recall specific situations, images, light, smells, sounds, surfaces, and objects his or her hands once touched. A skilled receiver can filter a rich picture of an era out of the sharp scent of a black leather jacket and the manner of speech in a foreign language, being up on the shoulders of one’s father or him riding a motorcycle, stirring Soviet songs playing from a radio, or stitching together a doll’s fabric body. Additionally, the child’s inadequate ability to interpret situations strikingly highlights the tragedy of the story: her mother is sentenced to 25 + 5 years in a prison-camp and settlement, and when the child returns from staying with relatives for a couple of weeks, she asks whether 25 + 5 years are over yet. The fear and anticipation she suffers while waiting for the return of her mother pervade Seltsimees laps, as she constantly imagines her mother’s homecoming. One especially painful scene unfolds at the circus: a place which should be entertaining, but which only ends up magnifying her uncertainty with its strange and unaccustomed sights.

The filigreed tracing of a child’s thought process imbues Tungal’s novel with universal human power: it is a story about fear and the preservation of hope. At the same time, the autobiographical work broadens opportunities for understanding the rest of the author’s bibliography: does the cheerfulness of her children’s poetry actually convey her father’s instructions on how to get by in life, to be happy and kind?

The designs of two of Tungal’s children’s poetry books feature poppies, and one of them, which was dedicated to her mother, is entitled Mooni avastamine (Discovering a Poppy). Poppies grow in abundance near Tungal’s home, and the author’s identification with the surrounding environment is clearly perceptible in her poetry. However, poppies also have a special significance in relation to war and peace: they prefer calcium-rich ground, which frequently develops as a consequence of intense warfare. Thus, the flower is also a symbol of peace and endurance. Leelo Tungal’s works, and her personality, give us hope for that.

Mare Müürsepp  (1958) is a researcher of children’s literature, a teacher and an author. She is actively involved in issues concerning child-raising and early
education, and has published textbooks and scholarly works.

In February 2016, compelling news came out: Jaan Kaplinski had been awarded the European Prize for Literature. The award, which is sponsored by the city of Strasbourg and the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, has been presented annually for eleven years.

Laureates are selected for works that have impacted European culture as a whole. The fact that it is an august award is confirmed by the list of recipients, which includes Bo Carpelan, Tony Harrison, Tadeusz Róz·ewicz, Jon Fosse, and Tankred Dorst. Since any international recognition is a banner event for the relatively modest-sized field of Estonian literature, the Estonian Literature Magazine felt compelled to ask Kaplinski a few pertinent questions.

ELM: The European Prize for Literature sounds prestigious; it has even been compared to the Nobel Prize for Literature. What does this kind of recognition really mean to you; i.e. what has the award brought you? Has it changed your life, and how?

JK: It’s hard to believe that this award is so prestigious. There’s been exceptionally little talk of it in European journalism. Comparing it to the Nobel is certainly blowing it way out of proportion. And now, more likely than not, the award will be done away with entirely. So, I will be the last laureate, and while the award previously came with a modest sum of money and was presented at a formal ceremony in Strasbourg, in my case, both the money and the ceremony were cancelled. Only after I pressed the jury on the issue did they inform me that it was very possible that I was the very last laureate. I’d already been told for two years that I was to be the next recipient, and it was lamentable when it all ended with only an e-mail from the jury saying sorry, the award won’t be given out at a ceremony. It’s nice that the notice came, regardless; maybe it will help one of my books to be published somewhere in Europe.

The diversity of your works certainly played a great part in you being awarded the European Prize for Literature. You’ve written masterful poetry, short stories, novels, essays, philosophical texts, memoirs, and plays. What part of your writing –
either a work or a genre – is closest to your heart, personally? What type of form fascinates you the most right now? Or, looking at it in a different way, when addressing your works to what have critics paid the most attention, and what should they have focused on?

It’s difficult to observe and define yourself from a distance. Perhaps I could say that I’m an essayist and a poet with a philosophical slant. I suppose I’ve worked on that aspect the very most and put the most effort into it. I myself don’t see my plays as being that much of a success. Right now, I’m simply working on translating my poems into Russian, and editing my existing translations; at the same time, I’m writing poems in Russian, too. Unfortunately, there’s little time for anything else. I suppose that reviewers have noticed the rather frequent irony in my texts too infrequently.

Readers become aware of your Polish roots in your 2013 memoirs To Father. In your blog Ummamuudu (In One’s Own Way [Võru language – Trans.]), you’ve written in other languages besides Estonian, including in English and Russian. What role does an author’s national or cultural background play in their writing, in your opinion? Or, more specifically: what does being an Estonian writer mean to you?

My mother and father were true Europeans who studied, lived, and worked in several countries. This might also be the source of my own relative cosmopolitanism. And my education in linguistics has, in its own way, inspired me to write in Russian, as well as in English to some extent. As a last resort, I’ve also had to translate the majority of my poems for my two collections published in English. And I’ve had an affinity for Russian poetry since childhood. The notion of an “Estonian writer” is very hazy, and I personally am not going to bother defining it. I am who I am; I write in the language which I feel close to at the given moment, and I suppose others can decide whether or not it’s Estonian literature.

What sort of literature do you keep your eye on?

I try to stay up-to-date with the newer and more interesting works in Estonian and Russian literature. And, as time permits, I read the Russian literature that wasn’t accessible during the Soviet era (written by Russian emigrants). And, of course, I follow science news very closely: I’ve written a thing or two about linguistics and ecology, and even a book on astronomy.

While the topic of confession and a deluge of biographies were items of discussion in Estonian literature during the first decade of this century, the next wave can now be noted: contemporary Estonian literature is undergoing a boom in landscape-centric self-presentation and works that center on the individual. Numerous works describe landscape experiences that are clearly based on autobiographical material, at the core of which are subjects that share biographical details identical to those of the authors. These experiences form a unique subjective model world, a literary mindscape that allows dreams and fantasies to exist alongside realistic details. For the most part, this mindscape is constructed in the immediate vicinity of the author’s home or in a place that is meaningful to him or her for some other reason, such as the site of the writer’s former home, a country cabin, or a grandparent’s home. Thus, the landscape transferred into the literature always possesses a geographical referent that is familiar to the author and recognizable to the native reader. At the same time, locational descriptions also encompass dreams, sensory manifestations, personal emotions, memory threads, poetizations of a site’s inherent features, a very selective attitude towards details of terrain, and the imposition of subjective meanings on the environment, and described just as sharply in the realistic sections are the region’s geography, structures, everyday life, documented events, personal thoughts, locals’ fates, etc. This is a unique interweaving of documentary and fiction, which carries the author’s need to explain his or her ordinary environment and map out meaningful landscapes.

Not only places and landscapes have come into focus, the depiction of mindscapes set somewhere in the periphery has become a distinct trend in contemporary Estonian literature. In this way, literature has seemingly antedated the recent grass-roots campaign Maale elama (Move to the Country), which aims to encourage youth to find suitable living environments not in cities, but on the periphery, nestled among nature. Thus, even literary creativity has fled to a simple and wild environment, to a quiet idyll, demonstrating a forceful detachment from globalization, urban anxiety, and social criticism or socio-urban representation, which dominated Estonian literature until just recently. The search for a genuine, pure and – in a way – elusive world is underway: a sense of perfection found in emptiness is expressed in depictions of the periphery; the most pronounced particularities, coziest qualities, and grounded values of tangled fringes are recorded. With the intertwining of these quiddities, creatively vital images are formed, ones which an outsider’s eyes and prejudices have been accustomed to perceiving as hopeless, gloomy, and restrictive. I will provide a few examples of this fresh phenomenon. In doing so, we should note that a circle can be traced around Estonia by placing literary peripheries’ and landscapes’ geographical mentions on the map of the country and connecting the dots.

In 2008, Andrus Kasemaa made his debut with a work of poetry that bears a manifest-like title: Poeedirahu (The Poet’s Peace). Poeedirahu is an imaginary toponym Kasemaa has given to a subjective image of the world, which stands for places in the writer’s home region that have become meaningful, necessary, sensorially pleasing, and steeped in experiences. The archetype for this literary landscape is situated on the eastern edge of Estonia, between Lake Peipus and the forests of Välgi, which is corroborated by mentions of geographical features, distances, and places bearing realistic facts and names. Over the years 2008–2012, Kasemaa delineated and expanded his Poeedirahu in three books of poetry and one book of prose, which makes it one of the most systematic geneses in newer Estonian literature. At the same time, it has become clear that it is impossible to fully and clearly determine the bounds and extent of Poeedirahu’s creative-subjective world: these have validity only in the autobiographical subject’s mind and may shift since they are formed according to his preferences, likings, and the uniting of places meaningful to him. Additionally, Kasemaa has defined Poeedirahu’s central objects and features systematically: it is an out-of-the-way village full of abandoned houses, wandering foxes, and widows. Still, this kind of composition does not come entirely in the form of woeful and marginal place images. Rather, the author sculpts them into a virtue of the site, binding to these elements an attractive and mysterious genius loci that poeticizes the manifestations of ruin. While Poeedirahu is depicted as an empty periphery that contains nothing apart from decay and old women, it is these same old women, the widows, who still remember golden days of the past. Their memories have not been tarnished by the racket of the modern world, and within them still flickers something of lost times of happiness, when the beautiful landscapes that surround them were still utilized in a variety of ways and the village was full of lively activity. Kasemaa revives and maps out this lost world; throughout his ramblings across the dreamscape, he discovers merits in this genuine periphery with its emptiness and silence. The location favors the opening of the senses to any and all environmental experiences, to lazing around in a summery place, doing nothing but simply watching the clouds go by, to realizing one’s own endless freedom, which is not broken by the drudgery of
everyday life.

Intersecting Kasemaa’s Poeedirahu landscape is Vahur Afanasjev’s poetry collection Tünsamäe tigu (Tünsamäe Snail, 2015), which maps out, both geographically and historically, the very same swath of countryside, bounded on one side by Estonia’s largest lake and on the other by an immensity of dense forests. However, Afanasjev does not employ imaginary toponyms in his depiction of the periphery: Tünsamäe is an actual place. Neither does the writer live year-round in this real place, but only summers there. Another significant difference is that the subject (or observer/actor) of Afanasjev’s poetic world is not the lyrical self, which enables the drawing of parallels to the author, but rather a snail encountering the landscape. Nevertheless, locals’ fates (perhaps also those of a widow or two?), buildings’ histories, nexuses chosen from the landscape’s history, and natural entities emerge from the vicinity of Tünsamäe and bind it into a congruous image of the terrain. Despite the fact that everything is seen from the perspective of a snail, it is all geographically accurate, vividly attested to by the maps and land surveys used as illustrations.

The types of people occupying the periphery largely harmonize with the region’s qualities: they are marginalized, somewhat dirty, and are often afflicted by poverty, health problems and vices, particularly a fondness for drink. The events that take place in the periphery are unusual and mainly impossible to imagine transpiring in an urban environment, due to their exotic and repellent nature. They are all the more compelling when observed against the backdrop of everyday rural life, since truly great events happen there very rarely. These qualities are greatly amplified, taken to the extreme, in Ott Kilusk’s Bildungsroman titled Veidrikud ja võpatused (Screwballs and Shocks, 2012), which portrays the atmosphere in a tiny village at the farthest edge of the world, placing on the literary map the settlement of Meremäe, in the far southwestern corner of Estonia. There the writer grew up, and there his protagonist does as well, remarking on all kinds of reclamations by nature and degradations both in terms of landscape and village life. It is all the more interesting to read in comparison with this story an entirely different kind of tale set in southwestern or, more precisely, in southern Estonia, one which adjoins the region Kilusk depicts, but which lacks his alienating shocks and dread: in Räestu raamat (The Räestu Record, 2012), Lauri Sommer tells of a place named Räestu in Võru County. The narrative is a quite lengthy, landscape-based history that begins with the grandparents’ search for a home, the creation of ancient footpaths, the gradual development of meaningful area, etc. Due to the warm, empathetic tone of the description and the narrator’s enthusiasm, every minute detail of rural living acquires unique poetic value; life in the countryside is filled with bright contentment and quiet, happy progress. Sommer’s characters are also bright and warm: he offers sweeping sketches of the more important individuals’ lives; i.e. those who possess a particular emotional significance. The author’s little world of Räestu is far from Kilusk’s marginality and discomfort. On the contrary, it is brimming with a mystical enthrallment, an uncommon life philosophy that is linked to the land, with vitality and a poetic interpretation of mundane life.

Tõnu Õnnepalu also titled his place-portraying work as manifestly as Poeedirahu: Paradiis (Paradise, 2009). The autobiographical novel maps out a place called „Paradiis” in Kaleste Village on the western coast of Estonia’s second-largest island, Hiiumaa, where the author lived for a dozen years. It is, of course, a subjective portrayal of the place, in which the author includes only the necessary and personally meaningful part of the landscape. The region called Paradiis is a geographically recognizable location with particular features and distances, but it is also a space of emotions, self-observations and memories, in which reflections of the geographical landscapes blend with fantasies and apparitions. As a result, Paradiis (which in a purely geographical sense is the most peripheral of all these aforementioned sites, set next to the sea and on the western fringe of an island beyond which lie only immense open waters) is a brighter place than the other peripheries. Pervading it is nostalgia, the finding of inner peace, as well as the freedom and joy derived from simple things. Unlike the other works, it is physical labor in particular that holds great importance. Perhaps the fact that elements of the literary space include, to a large degree, farming, caring for sheep and fruit trees, fence-building, etc. (all activities that demand time and dedication) results in the image being one of peaceful solitude and concentration, and it is also clearly more idyllic than any of the other peripheries.

Lauri Pilter’s landscape depictions are also characterized by a seaside location. Pilter has focused on Estonia’s Noarootsi Peninsula – the site of his summer cabin and childhood games – mapping out creative and mental spaces and calling the subjective and condensed result Airootsi in his works dating between 2010–2014. In it, we of course recognize references to actual terrains and places, although unlike the other works mentioned here, Pilter has also re-named other locations at a farther distance from his Airootsi. In addition to the subject’s own activities, included in the depiction of landscape are digressions that describe people who are unusual and meaningful to the author –
stories that explore the individuals’ routines and endeavors – as well as the autobiographical narrator’s family history. Still, a very important factor that sets the rhythm for the life framed by landscape (aside from the descriptions of simple rural living) is the author’s recognition of Airootsi/Noarootsi’s geographical history, in which the site’s peripheral nature is emphasized: now a peninsula, Airootsi/Noarootsi was once a separate island, and the terrain betrays signs of this to this day. A soggy, unusable flood meadow now stretches across the former seabed that divided the island and the mainland, which contributes to characteristics of the place and the inhabitants’ mentality.

Moving along the fringes towards Estonia’s northern reaches, it is our last chance to note that the selective and subject-centric representation of autobiographical locational experiences as a noteworthy tendency in contemporary Estonian literature is not solely the domain of male writers. Kristiina Ehin, for instance, has depicted with clear documentary elements her own personal peripheral site, which is just as isolated as Õnnepalu’s Paradiis: namely, the poet wrote her collection Kaitseala (Sanctuary, 2005) on the small, empty, unpopulated island of Mohni, while working as a lighthouse keeper. The work contains observations of nature and of self, yearnings, and fragments of memory recorded in isolation. Spliced between the poems is a “place-diary”: dated notes about significant moments on the island. These sketch a rather clear picture of the location and, by pointing out environmental problems, they establish the foremost issue as the pristine quality that is expected of such a place. Kaja Kann has written a straightforward place-diary about a place named Pardimäe in Kanguristi Village, located in the northernmost reaches of Estonia. Her work is titled Eratee (Private Road, 2013), and in it she describes in detail her everyday activities and goals. What materializes before the reader’s eye is a place at least as devoid of human population as Ehin’s Mohni Island: Kann is completely alone in “her Pardimäe”, and the setting is primarily limited to her home and yard, describing house maintenance, preserve-making, knitting, garden care, splitting firewood, etc. The location itself may not lie exactly on the fringe, but it is almost as isolated as a small island: the road to it is difficult to find and often impassable due to either rain or snow. This guarantees a quiet life.

It is truly remarkable how newer Estonian literature has discovered, opened up, and even awakened the peripheries, bestowing mental spaciousness and intimate meanings upon the very places that lie at a distance from urban centers and are typically invisible. Peripheries are valued as creative, mysterious, and pristine landscapes, into which purely personal strands of meaning, suggestive snapshots of memory, sources of intimate visions, yearnings, and a poeticized sense of belonging can be planted. It is in this way that subjective, out-of-the-way idylls have materialized from the peripheries of Estonian literature: model worlds forged on the basis of the authors’ moods, dreams, and wishes; worlds, which clash with globalization and urban space.

Brita Melts  (1984) is a literary
scholar and critic, and the literary
history and folklore editor for
the academic journal Keel ja kirjandus (Language and Literature).

The Estonian Literature Centre has a magnificent tradition of inviting translators of Estonian literature who hail from all around the world to converge on the northern village of Käsmu, wedged between a primeval forest and the sea. The latest grand translators’ seminar, which was held in June 2016, was made special by the fact that the Centre is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Altogether 45 translators from 19 different countries – not to mention a large number of prominent Estonian authors – gathered in the village. Literature was introduced, authors discussed their works, and the densely-packed days transitioned smoothly into evenings of music and dance. ELM took the opportunity to ask a few members of the Estonian literary translation family what fascinated them most about their field, and which Estonian authors or literary works they would recommend reading.

Cornelius Hasselblatt
translates into German

When asked what the most fascinating thing about Estonian literature is for me, my first spontaneous reaction is: its mere existence and diversity. For, one thing is sure, it is not self-evident at all that such a thing as “Estonian literature” should even exist. This is also an honest answer, because to me all other possible arguments in favor of the exceptional quality or particularity or enormous quantity of Estonian literature seem unacceptable. I have dealt intensively with Estonian literature for over thirty years, and know it better than probably any other literature in the world. Therefore, I can’t really compare, and I wouldn’t dare to say that Estonian literature is more fascinating than any other world literature. What does fascinate me is the language I once began to study for some reason (or languages, rather, as both Finnish and Estonian were my specializations within Finno-Ugric studies), the history and culture connected with it, and it being “different” and, above all, “smaller” than the one I come from. As I love literature as well, it is logical that I’ve developed a special relationship with Estonian literature. As a result, one finds texts that really seem to be something very unique in the sense that they widen your horizons. Although, I repeat, this does not mean that such texts do not exist in other literatures: I simply have never read Andrus Kivirähk-like texts in any other literature. If you dive into the world of The Man Who Spoke Snakish, Kaka ja kevad (Poop and Spring), or Oskar ja asjad (Oskar and the Things), your world will be changed when you come back to the surface.

Daniele Monticelli
translates into Italian

I cannot say I’m an assiduous reader of Estonian literature, and my knowledge of it is therefore far from systematic. Leaving the classics aside and concentrating on recent works and contemporary authors, I find three kinds of approaches in different literary genres particularly interesting. First, in prose, those attempts to make sense of Estonian history and identity which unite a personal style with an internationally appealing, understandable, and universalizable narrative. Novels of this kind range from the grotesque, tragi­comic hyperboles of Andrus Kivirähk on the mythical Estonian past (The Old Barny and The Man Who Spoke Snakish) to Rein Raud’s The Death of the Perfect Sentence, where the dissolution of the Soviet Union is an occasion for a story about human relations and difficult choices. Andrei Ivanov’s short stories (e.g. Ash and My Danish Uncle) and novels (e.g. A Handful of Dust) provide unprecedentedly painful images of post-Soviet Estonia from the point of view of the Russian-speaking community. Though they may be difficult to translate, I think that Ene Mihkelson’s novels on Soviet repression (The Dream of Ahasuerus and Plague Grave) are an important addition to international trauma literature.

Secondly, the young generation of poets –
Maarja Kangro, Jürgen Rooste, Sveta Grigorjeva, Eda Ahi, Kalju Kruusa and Kristjan Haljak, to mention only a few – strikes me with its writers’ acute social critique, on the one hand, and the formal mastery and linguistic playfulness of their poems, on the other.

Finally, with such authors as Piret Raud, contemporary Estonian children’s literature offers thrilling narratives that deal with fundamental human values in a peculiarly humorous tone.

My reading suggestions bring us back to the classics. Namely, I have always loved Aino Pervik’s Arabella, The Pirate’s Daughter, which was one of the first books I read in Estonian. It is not only an unconventional pirate story, but also a refined reflection on the intricacy of evil, friendship and paternal and filial love: a book for readers of all ages.

Bence Patat
translates into Hungarian

For me, Hősök tere (Heroes’ Square) in Budapest will always be a sort of “Estonian greeting” [“Tere” in Estonian means “hello” – Trans.].

When I started learning Estonian at university more than 20 years ago, I had no idea that I would ever translate literature from the language. The first time I visited Estonia was in 1995 and, as a fan of Fennoscandia, I couldn’t help falling in love both with the country and its people. I kept on studying and visiting Eesti (as we Hungarian Estophiles call it), and a bunch of years later ended up translating literary works from Estonian, among other languages.

At this year’s seminar in Käsmu (the first such experience for me), it became very apparent that translating from Estonian entails becoming a part of a rather select family: an extraordinary atmosphere that no “big” languages can create.

Estonia with its literature holds a special place in my soul: like an exclusive piece of cake that tastes modern but is still based on an ancient recipe, not really typical of Fennoscandian or Eastern European cuisine, prepared with spices of the Baltic and the Finno-Ugric world by cooks who have professional experience somewhat similar to mine.

One of my recent favorites is Piret Raud’s latest book Lugu Sandrist, Murist, tillukesest emmest ja nähtamatust Akslist (The Story of Sander, Muri, the Tiny Mommy, and the Invisible Aksel), which is funny and serious at the same time. Along with the illustrations, I also admire her multiple-viewpoint technique, which is not common in “children’s” books. It is an enjoyable read for both kids and adults.

Øyvind Rangøy
translates into Norwegian

I am a Norwegian who also lives in the Estonian language, like a rowan sprig grafted onto an apple tree. The tree, which was once separate, is now also in my juice made from miniature apples. The story, which was once distant and merely shimmered on the horizon across a sea and behind barbed wire, is now my own as well. Estonia is, naturally, dirt, water and a collective swine farm. Estonia is also fear, forest and lilacs. Even more importantly, Estonia is the voices of those who make the land either coherent or enrichingly incoherent.

Therefore, the translation and conveyance of Estonian literature is a paradoxically necessary activity for me. When Estonian literature helps me to understand the land and the people that are also a part of me, it feels very personal. When I better understand through its literature my own two cultures – one in which I was born and another which has been grafted onto me –
then it is a unique process of healing a cleaved soul: in other words, integration. If this process also serves as a bridge for someone else, then the phenomenon is all the more welcome.

I don’t see what might be regarded as “typical” Estonian literature as holding any significance here. I appreciate that which touches, which moves. I also appreciate that which may help someone to live with a painful and complex history, all the while without becoming a one-topic literature, just as Estonia is not a one-topic country.

My personal reading recommendation would be Mari Saat’s Lasnamäe lunastaja (The Redeemer of Lasnamäe). It is a short novel that is simple in narrative. With its perspective that is uncommon but – in a certain sense – eternal, the work addresses Estonian society and recent history, as well as general issues of humanity.

Consuelo Rubio
translates into Spanish

… and to the Käsmu Peninsula they drove us, oh yeah! A bus full of more or less eccentric translators from around the globe. Needless to say, spirits were high, the expectations were huge, and the organization impeccable. And now you ask me to write a report on what I found particularly enticing? Hardly an easy task. But for the benefit of your distinguished readers, and for whatever these extremely personal and biased opinions may be worth, I’ll say that, yes, I had to get my hands on a copy of Sillamäe passion (The Passion of Sillamäe) before I flew back to my country, so impressive was the delivery of the extracts Andrei Hvostov read aloud, and so engrossing was the narrative of what it was like to grow up Russian and Estonian in a rough barrio of the East in the eighties. I hasten to add that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the eternally ironic, nonchalant, self-effacing Andrus Kivirähk speak about his works. Although… wait a minute… Did he really talk about them, or did he just manage to avoid answering the interviewer’s questions and at the same time give us a pretty good idea of his vision of literature, of what his Weltanschauung is like? Also tremendously enjoyable was listening to and posing for a picture with the always adorable (and always full of “jumping beans” and good stories) Leelo Tungal, whose perfect counterpart is indeed the wickedly clever Maarja Kangro: aren’t those short stories of hers perversely funny and deserving of a few smirks? Before I forget, I should not leave out Ilmar Taska, who did an awesome job of presenting his latest novel: half Bildungsroman, half cosmopolitan romance in times of war. The same goes for the amazingly savvy Rein Raud and Kai Aareleid, whose Linnade põletamine (We All Fall Down) delves into darkish memories and family secrets, which are, incidentally, very fashionable topics in Spanish fiction and non-fiction these days. Last, but not least, I have been meaning to read Mihkel Mutt’s musings for the longest time: a desire that this seminar has only managed to increase. What the heck – one has to give credit to a man who shows up in a light-colored T-shirt, matching denim pants, and a white cowboy hat. His attire was wonderfully attuned to the setting, and it really rocked, just as I am sure his memoirs must get one rocking (and rolling), too.

Kriszta Tóth
translates into Hungarian

I must admit that, although I would gladly work on poetry and plays more frequently as a translator, I mainly translate Estonian prose.

Original Estonian-language prose especially draws me in when the author doesn’t simply allow the story to dominate, but rather works with various prose-poetry solutions, when he or she boldly experiments with the text’s literary opportunities. This may mean, for instance, playing with the narrator’s voice and position, fictionality and possibilities of time and space, using finer humor and irony, or turning the reader’s comfortable world upside-down to shake him or her out of the safety zone. In short, when the author gives the reader intellectual work, and with it also the responsibility of being a co-author, to an extent.

Secondly, though, I like when there is idio­syncrasy in an author’s sentences and when they have their own rhythm that can be recognized like a fingerprint. If the author finds something in language that is unique to him or her alone and is capable of packing it into sentences, then that is my author.

These kinds of texts are especially tough nuts to crack for translators, of course. But gnawing such nuts open is what makes a translator’s work exciting.

Naturally, my favorite texts – and coincidentally my reading recommendations – are the ones that I myself have translated, because I have delved into them the very most: Tiit Aleksejev’s novels Palveränd (Pilgrimage) and Kindel linn (Stronghold), and Tõnu Õnnepalu’s Mandala. At the moment, I’m working on Paavo Matsin’s Gogoli disko (Gogol’s Disco). And there are also texts that I would like to translate in the future: works by Nikolai Baturin, Ülo Mattheus, Bernard Kangro, Karl Ristikivi, Eeva Park, Mihkel Mutt, Jaan Kross, Jaan Undusk and others.

Just about a year ago, Jüri Kolk, Jan Kaus, Karl Martin Sinijärv, and I were reading our own works and a few by others to a nearly full house in the large community center of the small town of Türi. We took turns, and when Jüri Kolk was up, he announced that he would read a poem that always made him cry.

Jüri read better than ever before and, by the end, unmistakable tears were running down his childishly rounded cheeks. I was sitting next to him and was the closest witness, as a result of which I can confirm with absolute certainty that it was not an act or a performance: Kolk was being genuine, honest, and natural to the core, and his works are equally genuine, honest and natural (although readers can try deluding themselves that the writer wishes to deceive them, and the wish to be deceived is often what motivates us to read books). With Kolk, we cannot be deceived, not in life or in his works, and anyone who feels deceived disappoints me.

20 + n jobs

I asked Jüri Kolk (b 1972) for his official CV, but he didn’t send me the most correct and exhaustive version. He had something better. Jüri sent me a quick summary of his professional life with added remarks, ending with the sentence: “Kaupo, I recently tallied it up and I’ve held over 20 jobs.”

So, what have these jobs been? They include warehouse worker, logistics director, purchasing director, export specialist at a brewery, and director of a transport service. His experience includes being promoted to department head of a bakery, and in 2005 his colleagues voted him “Employee of the Year” of the Reola company’s production unit. Preceding these jobs was a degree in Estonian philology from the University of Tartu, and scattered amid them were a couple of positions in the humanitarian sector: at a translation bureau and as a magazine editor. These latter occupations would be expected of a writer, although they tended to be mere episodes for Kolk.

“I have over 15 years’ experience resolving practical and logistical tasks. I’ve worked in the fields of logistics and purchasing in both the food industry and the electronics industry, and can claim that I’ve handled these tasks wonderfully. I’ve been given promotions several times,” Kolk summarized, beaming with entirely justified pride.

However, the most interesting aspect of Kolk’s professional life is that a few years ago he made the conscious decision to step a few rungs downward on the job ladder, crafting a backwards career. The reason was simple: he needed more time for writing. He does 12-hour shifts, which gives him more free days, even though his workdays are that much more draining. It’s possible that this schedule will turn out to be unsustainable and Kolk will end up at an office job with more regular hours, but at least he will have tried coupling a day job with writing, which is unfortunately possible for very few.

An upstanding member of society, his present positions are shift manager for the beer and soft-drink company A. Le Coq (since 2014), and freelance writer. Kolk’s superiors and colleagues can adequately assess his performance as a logistics or shift manager; literary critics aren’t allowed to go poking around those areas. Luckily, one can determine from a distance that since shops are still fully stocked with beer and soft drinks, Kolk must be doing very good work, and the very same can be said about his literary activities.

8 + n books

With writers, you can never avoid trivial questions: Why did you choose the thorny writer’s path? How and why did you become a writer? Jüri Kolk has three answers for me:

1) “Once, when I was just a kid, I discovered in myself the early conviction that I would become a writer. Not that I wanted to, but that I would.”

2) “After a break, I started writing again in 2007.”

3) “At one point, acquaintances started introducing me to others as a writer.”

Jüri Kolk’s debut, the poetry collection Barbar Conan peeglitagusel maal (ja mis ta seal rääkis) (Conan the Barbarian in the Land Behind the Mirror (and What He Said There)), was published in 2009 (i.e. a couple of years after the end of his writing break), and by then he was certainly already being introduced as a writer. You can’t say that Kolk took the literary world by storm with his first work. It was a good debut, but nothing momentous or world-changing. Of course, no one (except, perhaps, the author himself) knew at the time that it would be followed shortly by other poetry collections –
a couple of intervening years at first, and far smaller intervals later – as well as by books of prose.

Taken as a whole, Kolk’s works, which are often playful and based on free association, radiate a sense of a determined work ethic. The number of his texts in print and on social media is increasing steadily and consistently. Rivers and streams are steadily flowing into the sea that is Kolk’s writing: some straight, some winding.

When I reviewed Kolk’s third poetry collection, Seitse surmavoorust (The Seven Virtues of Death), I remarked that “quantity may not be sufficient proof of quality, but in Kolk’s case, one gradually transitions into the other and you can tell that the man very clearly knows what he wants, and obviously wants a lot.” Now, three years and five Kolk books later, I can state with a sense of relief that I was right.

Might the best verification of Kolk’s quality (for which quantity might be, though is not necessarily, a gauge) be the fact that as of today, he has received three prestigious Estonian literary awards: the 2015 Juhan Liiv Award for Poetry (Arno apooria (Arno’s aporia)), the 2016 Friedebert Tuglas Short Story Award (Sünnimärk (Birthmark)), and the 2016 Gustav Suits Award for Poetry (Mee lakkumine pole meelakkumine (Licking Honey Isn’t Honey-Licking))?

Why not? Especially given the roundabout path by which the awards came, as if juries had just noticed Kolk’s works, or else judges believed he reached a high artistic level only over the last couple of years. Thus, the principle that work and tenacity will lead you to your goal seems to be true in Kolk’s case but, even so, purely as a reader focused on his writing, the awards are not of the greatest importance.

Kolk himself says he hasn’t given all that much thought to the awards, although he’s naturally glad to have received them –
and they’re certainly boast-worthy. He is no incredible aesthete devoid of lowbrow cravings, and would undoubtedly like a state-sponsored writer’s salary or a Hollywood film contract; however, above all, he hopes to one day not have to have a job and be able to live off of his writing. “And, well, I know a little, maybe incorrectly, the kinds of tricks that would help make my writing please juries, but even so, I don’t use them. It might sound haughty, but I truly don’t. I’d rather sell my body, because for me literature is important as a hobby, as a love,” he says.

And so, creation and loving what you create is most important to him.

100 + n realities

Kolk asserts that he writes for like-minded people and adds that, above all, he simply writes texts without concentrating on doing it for an audience. He admits that this is partly a mistake, but at least makes sure that references don’t stay hidden in his head.

Yes, those references. Both Kolk’s poetry and his prose are brimming with them. In spite of its style, his poetry can be termed “essayistic storytelling” and, when someone tells a story, digressions and quotes inevitably creep into it. The teller doesn’t bother to explain their backgrounds, because he or she assumes that those hearing or reading will understand without explanation.

Thus, in Kolk’s works, we encounter quotes from films, books, proverbs, figures of speech, and lyrics: some verbatim, while others are witty adaptations. Kolk has employed adaptation as a method often in his poetry, breathing new life into earlier works, such as Sergei Yesenin’s poem “Letter to My Mother” and Pink Floyd’s song “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”.

If Kolk’s works are translated, a significant portion of the text is untranslatable because a lot of the wordplay cannot be satisfactorily conveyed in another language. His phrasing is actually simple and fluent, but in order for someone from another culture to comprehend everything, that reader would have to be supplied with explanations. I’m afraid not even all Estonians can understand all of Kolk, although he is no elitist. Faced with the choice of referencing Immanuel Kant or an Estonian children’s song, he will (automatically) choose the latter; however, it’s not impossible that Kant will be the one singing in Kolk’s story, and will be doing so in some grocery store on the outskirts of Tartu.

A fitting example of Kolk’s referencing, adaptation, and the entire translation-and-explanation issue are two lines from his collection Igapidi üks õnn ja rõõm (All Around is Joy and Bliss, 2016). Kolk writes: “social pressure grows high on St. John’s Day / you’re to find a fern blossom, drink and catch a flaxen-haired girl” (p 30).

The Estonian-language lines are perfectly straightforward. Firstly, St. John’s Day
(jaanipäev) is one of Estonians’ most important holidays: after midnight on 24 June, the shortest and lightest day of the year. Secondly, the lyrics of one popular Estonian song are “grass grows high on St. John’s Day” (“jaanipäeval kõrgeks kasvab rohi”), and another popular Estonian St. John’s Day song claims you “sure can’t catch a flaxen-haired girl” (“linalakk neidu küll püüda ei saa”). Thirdly, ferns do not blossom (searching for their blossoms is, however, a traditional Estonian St. John’s Day custom), and fourthly, as a consequence of social pressure, Estonians do indeed drink a whole forestful of alcohol in celebration of the holiday.

Carrying on like this, we could naturally suck the life out of Kolk’s works through explanation, but life is the actual subject he consistently writes about (and in every form). In poetry, he mainly registers life; in short prose, he illustrates and sometimes also elucidates it. Kolk’s shift from poetry to prose came very naturally, and his experience as a poet is clearly perceptible in his prose style: his thoughts flow freely, his manner of storytelling is concentrated, and his stories frequently end the same way as his poems: with a single-sentence resolution.

Kolk takes his readers to ordinary, even emphatically uninteresting places: to parks, shops, literary evenings, and jogging trails. Sometimes, the narrator wants to beat someone up; sometimes, someone wants to beat him up. And in Kolk’s version of Little Red Riding Hood in the short prose collection Suur võidujooks (The Great Race, Tuum, Tallinn 2015), the protagonist actually encounters Zeus, who ultimately transforms himself into a swan, whom Little Red Riding Hood feeds a cake, and who, in the end, dies because of it.

There is a constant interweaving of reality and magic (or anti-reality) that surfaces throughout Kolk’s works, and before long it’s impossible for the reader to figure out what is really happening and what is not. Is there anything unreal about someone actually talking to a wall? There conceptually could be, but when Kolk writes about it, there’s not. He first writes reality into anti-reality, then back into reality, and although this may sound pretentious it’s very easy for the reader to keep up.

If one were to state something defining about Jüri Kolk, it would be that he is a tucked-away secret of Estonian literature, drifting just below the surface, and to discover it even his compatriots must make a little more effort.

Nevertheless, I’m confident that more and more people will arrive at Jüri Kolk’s works and find, to their delight, the extent to which it’s possible to nudge the world into place by writing simply and understandably. Further opportunities for this will reveal themselves before long, because Jüri is partway through a novel, has a number of ideas for novellas on hold, is composing a book of short stories, and has started writing different kinds of poems: ones which he says are “moderately un-Kolkish”.

In a poem published in Kolk’s latest poetry collection, Igapidi üks õnn ja rõõm, the narrator asks a busload of glum-faced factory workers: “You haven’t happened to see my immortal soul, have you?” It’s a good question, which we could also ask others on occasion: Jüri Kolk, for example.

Kaupo Meiel  (1975) is a poet,
journalist, and consultant for Estonia’s
only literature-themed TV show,
Kirjandusministeerium. He has published four collections of poetry. Meiel’s
works are characterized by humor,
social nerve, and witty wordplay.