Miller, Voldemar
Voldemar Karl Miller was born on the island of Saaremaa in 1911. He was an Estonian writer, librarian, archivist, and local historian. In the 1930s he studied History at the University of Tartu. In 1937 he began working at the Historical Archive of Estonia (now the National Archive), which he also led from 1944 to 1950. To escape from police arrest after the March Plenum of 1950, he volunteered to work in an oil shale mine in northeast Estonia, where he remained for 2 years.
He devoted a great part of his life to librarianship, working both at the Library of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (1952–1977) and at the National Library (1978–1996). In the 1960s, he introduced the terms ‘baltica’ and ‘rare book’ and was designated as head of the newly established Baltica and Rare Books Department at the Library of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
He regarded his mother tongue as an important factor in the development of Estonian nationality and culture. Although officially forbidden, he managed to organize exhibitions and publish special editions for the celebrations of the Estonian Book Year in 1970, marking 450 years since the first known book was printed in Estonian. An important milestone was the historical overview Eesti raamat 1525–1975 (Estonian Book 1525–1975), which included a chapter on the interactions between the Estonian and the Baltic German cultures and the history of book publishing in both languages.
Voldemar Miller also had a passion for local history. He was an important figure in the local history research committee, which was founded in 1958. In 1963, he was one of the founders of the local history research club at the Tallinn City Museum. On his initiative Estonian Television launched the series Majad täis mälestusi (Houses Full of Memories).
As an author, he achieved greater recognition for writing children’s literature. Miller published his first short stories in Täheke, a children’s magazine still active to this day. His first children’s book was published in 1966. Very well-known was his short story collection Merehundijutud (Tales of an Old Salt, 1984, 1993).
Voldemar Miller devoted his life to the research of Estonian history, language, and written culture. He belonged to several societies and associations. In 1995 he became a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union. Voldemar Miller died in 2006.
Luik, Viivi
As the wife of a diplomat, she has spent several years abroad: in Helsinki (1993-1997), Berlin (1996) and Rome (1998–2003).
Her works have been translated into many languages, and she has been awarded many literary prizes, most recently the Jaan Kross Prize 2020.
Aarsalu, Elsbeth Hanna
She studied History, German and Classical Philology at the University of Tartu. She has been writing art, film and literary criticism on young Estonian artists and poets as well as on international authors (Tõnis Vilu, Eugen Ruge), reportages from home and abroad, and translated young German speaking authors into Estonian (Slata Roschal, Vea Kaiser) for the literary and cultural magazines Müürileht and Värske Rõhk. She has worked as a lecturer of Estonian language at the University of Greifswald, Germany, and currently teaches Estonian at a private language school. She has also occasionally translated older text fragments from Latin and Old Greek.
She lives in Tallinn, Estonia.
Viiding, Kristi
Kristi Viidingʼs primary areas of research are literature in Latin in the Baltic region, the early modern period, the emergence of secular written Estonian language in the 17th century and Latin epigraphics in the Baltic region.
She has published more than 80 scholarly articles, translated from medieval and Neo-Latin into Estonian (Tacitus “On the Origin and Settlement of the Germanic peoples”; Livy “From the Founding of the City”; “Deeds of the Romans”, and 17th century print sources on the founding of the University of Tartu), and from German into Estonian (Martin Klökerʼs monograph about the literary life in Reval in the first half of the 17th century).
In 2007 the main prize of the Literature Foundation of the Estonian Cultural capital was bestowed on Kristi Viidingʼs research group for the compilation of an anthology of 17th century occasional poetry in Tartu (“O Dorpat, urbs addictissima musis… Valik 17. sajandi Tartu juhuluulet”).
Sirkel, Mati
Mati Sirkel, born in Paide in 1949, is an Estonian literary historian and one of the most prolific translators from German (even from Dutch and Swedish) to Estonian. He studied German Philology and Literature at Tartu University until 1972, worked at the publishing house „Perioodika“ during the 70's and as a freelance since 2004. After 1990 he was Secretary of the Estonian Writers' Union, between 1995 and 2004 he was its President, 1993-1996 member of the board of the EWC. Mati Sirkel lives in Tallinn.
Among his numerous translations the most important might be prose and theatre works by Goethe, Hölderlin, Kleist, Kafka, Rilke, Robert Walser, Alfred Döblin, Hans Henny Jahnn, Robert Musil, Hermann Broch, Heimito von Doderer, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Thomas Bernhard, W. G. Sebald, Peter Handke.
Several awards, among them the Estonian White Cross Order 2001, Estonian State Coat of Arms 2006. Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation 2005. Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Poetry 2009. Friedrich Gundolf-Preis by Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung 2013.
Õnnepalu, Tõnu
Tõnu Õnnepalu (also known as Emil Tode, Anton Nigov) is an Estonian writer, poet, translator and essayist, born in Nõmme outside of Tallinn in 1962.
After three volumes of poetry (1985-1990), he published the novel "Piiririik" (Border State), his most translated work, which has been published in about 25 languages. "Hind" (The Price"), his second novel, was published in 1995 and is presented here in extracts about the fictitious village of Kalamäe.
His recent books ("The Catalogue of Lies / The English Garden", "Paris. Twenty Five Years Later" etc) are close to self fictional and documentary writing.
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