Krull, Hasso

Hasso Krull (b. 1964) is an Estonian poet who has published ten books of poetry and three collections of essays that include literary criticism as well as writings concerning art and cinema. He has been teaching literary and cultural theory at the Estonian Institute of Humanities since 1990 (special courses on creation myths, oral tradition, romanticism and symbolism, structuralism and psychoanalysis etc). In 2001 Krull founded a poetry translation review Ninniku with Kalju Kruusa (www.eki.ee/ninniku/), in 2003 there followed a book series Ninniku Raamatukogu.

He has acquired several prizes for poetry and criticism from the Estonian literary reviews, the Annual Prize of  the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for essays in 1998 and 2007, the Annual Prize of  the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for poetry in 2002 and 2010, the Baltic Assembly Prize for literature in 2005 and the Tallinn University Literary Prize in 2007. Anthological pieces from his poetry have been translated into Finnish, Swedish, Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, Slovenian, Slovak, Russian, Galician, Catalan and Latvian.

He has translated poetry from French (André Breton, René Char, Francis Ponge, Bernard Noël, Edmond Jabès, Mohammed Dib, Amina Said, Tahar Ben Jelloun), English (Sylvia Plath, Frank O'Hara, Rita Dove, Michael Ondaatje, Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, Sujata Bhatt, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bernstein, John Berryman, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams), Dutch (Cees Nooteboom, Hans van de Waarsenburg, Arjen Duinker, Diana Ozon), German (Michael Augustin), Finnish (Caj Westerberg, Tomi Kontio, Jouni Tossavainen, Tapani Kinnunen, Saila Susiluoto), Swedish (Claes Andersson) and Spanish (Pablo Neruda). Besides poetry, he has also translated prose works by Georges Bataille, Jean Cocteau, Paul Valéry, a book of Winnebago trickster tales recorded by Paul Radin, and theoretical works by Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Paul Virilio, Julia Kristeva, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Pierre Bourdieu, Slavoj Zizek, Walter Benjamin, Ernesto Laclau.

Kaplinski, Jaan

Born in Tartu in 1941, Jaan Kaplinski studied Romanic languages and linguistics at Tartu University and graduated as French philologist in 1964. He was a poet, essayist, critic and translator from French, English, Spanish, Chinese and Swedish, esp. of the work of Nobel prize winner Tomas Tranströmer, and died 80 years old on 8 August, 2021.

Jaan Kaplinski was one of the authors and initiators of the letter signed by well-known Estonian intellectuals protesting against the authorities in Soviet-Estonia in 1980. He was a member of the independent Estonian parliament from 1992 - 1995.

Pervik, Aino

Aino Pervik was graduated from Tartu State University in 1955 as a specialist of Finno-Ugric languages, have worked as an editor of children’s literature in State Publishing House and editor of children’s programs on Estonian TV, freelance writer since 1967. Mainly known as an author of books for children, but also as a prose writer, poet and translator of Hungarian literature. Her children’s books combine elements of fairy-tales, fantasy with realistic bits of everyday life. She is not afraid to deal with “hard” topics of good and evil, justice, humanity, responsibility, man’s relations with nature, her books make children think, not teach them a lesson. Aino Pervik’s best known books are “Kunksmoor” (“Old mother Kunks”, 1973) and “Kunksmoor ja kapten Trumm” (“Old mother Kunks and captain Trumm”, 1975), later issued as one book, “Arabella, mereröövli tütar” (“Arabella, the pirate’s daughter”, 1983) and “Kallis härra Q” (“Dear mister Q”, 1992).
Literary awards: Juhan Smuul’s award in 1976 for “Kunksmoor ja kapten Trumm”, Friedebert Tuglas’ short story award in 1983 for short story “Anna”, annual award of Writers’ Union in 1993 for “Kallis härra Q”.

Tuulik, Jüri

Prose writer and playwright Jüri Tuulik (1940 - 2014) was graduated from Tartu State University in 1963, worked as a journalist in different newspapers, professional writer since 1969. Most of his stories describe village life on his home island Abruka (less than 100 habitants), sometimes stories are placed on the biggest Estonian island Saaremaa. Dealing with very limited material (village, sea, seashore), Jüri Tuulik has achieved remarkable results in his short stories' collections "Meretagune asi" ("An overseas matter" 1976), "Külatraagik" ("The village tragedian" 1980) and short novel "Vares" ("Crow" 1979) to show one man's simple life as a matter of great imortance. The local dialect is often used, not only for humoristic purposes but also to give lyrical qualities to his stories and plays.
Prizes: August Mälk's short story award in 1998 for "Nende aastate pilved" ("Clouds of those years"); Oskar Luts' award in 2005; Friedebert Tuglas' short story award in 2009 for "Tellikaatne" ("Delicate matter").

Tuglas, Friedebert

As prose writer, translator and prominent critic Tuglas was one of the most influential people in Estonian literature from the beginning of the 20th century, a brilliant organiser ("Pope of Estonian literature"). He was a founder of the movement Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia) (1905), founder and  first chairman of Estonian Writers’ Union (1922) and founder and a first editor of Estonia's main literary magazine Looming (1923), initiator of Estonian Cultural Endowment – this list is not complete. He also founded a short story award in 1970.

Despite having an intellectual and analytic approach to literature he introduced impressionism and expressionism to Estonian literature. Intellectual play with new styles fascinated him. And today he became a fascinating character in modern Estonian literature (short story by Jaan Undusk, play by Andrus Kivirähk).

Cf. Endel Nirk. Estonian Literature. Historical Survey with Biobibliographical Appendix. Tallinn 1987