2025

From May 5 to 10, the Tartu International Literary Festival Prima Vista placed its focus on books, places, and the connections between them. Inspired by the motto of the Year of the Estonian Book, “A nation begins with a book”, the festival’s theme was “The Book as a Place, the Place as a Book”. This year’s patron was Kai Aareleid, and since Latvians are also celebrating the 500th anniversary of the first book in their native language, the partner city day took place in Valga, the town on the Estonian-Latvian border.

The festival opened at Tartu Observatory, where the Micro-Library – a space dedicated to the physical presence of books, presenting distinctive printed works over the course of four days – was also inaugurated.

Among the international guests of Prima Vista were German author Klaus Modick, Dutch scholar and writer Klaske Havik, Latvian author Andris Kalnozols, Lithuanian illustrator Lina Itagaki, German author Markus Thielemann, Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura, Finnish author Kjell Westö, German writer Julia von Lucadou, Venezuelan-rooted author Ernesto Salazar-Jimenez, and Japanese performance poet Yuri Miki, who appeared at the TarSlämm poetry slam.

The special programme “Tartu Revisited” offered literary walks led by British poet Andy Willoughby together with Estonian poet Joanna Ellmann, Scottish poet Penny Boxall, Anglo-Irish author Quigley Cryan Brockbank, Lithuanian writer Kristina Sadauskienė, and British author David Hartley.

As every year, the programme featured several traditional highlights: the book fair at Town Hall Square, the concert “Writers in Music”, the young authors’ evening “Literature with Spark”, and a wide variety of literary walks.

Alongside international guests, Estonian authors were strongly represented. Patron Kai Aareleid hosted her special evening “Tartu Map” in conversation with Jan Kaus. New works were introduced to the audience: Eva Koff’s novel „Õhuskõndija“ („Air Walker“), Toomas Kiho’s poetry collection „Pundinuiad“, and Susanna Veevo’s travelogue „Minu Türgi“ („My Turkey“). Kristiina Ehin held an author’s evening „Südametammide maastikel“ („In the Landscapes of Heart Dams”), during which she was also presented with the newly established Tartu City Library award “The Tartu Book”.