Agneta Pleijel (Sweden)

Agneta Pleijel (born 1940 in Stockholm) is one of the most prominent living writers in the Swedish language. She writes in many different genres: the novel, the drama, the poetry, the literary criticism and the cultural journalism. She made her debut as a playwright in 1970 and her first collection of poems was published in 1981. Relatively late, she wrote her first novel „Vindspejare”, which in 1987 became her major breakthrough as a writer.

Pleijel’s latest novel, „Dubbelporträtt” from 2020, was published in 2021 in Estonian translation by Anu Saluäär. The novel focuses on a real event: the famous artist Oskar Kokoschka painted in 1969 a portrait of the even more well-known detective story writer Agatha Christie. The dialogue and the novel’s depiction of the six sittings, on the other hand, come from Pleijel’s own imagination, although many of the images that emerge during the conversation are again historically substantiated. During the sessions in the novel, Kokoschka and Christie will, first with considerable difficulty, then with greater ease, have conversations that to a large extent discuss the relationship between life and art. Despite all the obvious differences, both appear as artists in heart and soul, both in their works and in their lives.

Treating real, historical events and people in a fictionalized form is not unusual in Pleijel’s writing. This is repeated in several works, for example in the drama „Kollontaj” (1979) about the Soviet ambassador in Sweden and author Aleksandra Kollontaj and in Fungi (1993) about the naturalist Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn.

Closer to Pleijel’s own family background are the novel debut „Vindspejare” (1987) and the novel trilogy „Drottningens chirurg” (2006), „Kungens komediant” (2007) and „Syster och bror” (2009), where the author has depicted human destinies through her own family tree from the 18th century onwards. In the collection of poems „Mostrarna och andra dikter” (2004) there are poems about close relatives in recent times. The two-part autobiography „Spådomen” (2015, in Estonian 2019) and „Doften av en man” (2018) then moved on directly to Pleijel’s own life, even though this had clearly been evident in several previous works.

Love, the oppressed femininity and the exploration of masculinity are important motifs throughout the books, as in „Hundstjärnan” (1989) from a young girl’s perspective and in the modern classic „En vinter i Stockholm” (1997, in Estonian 2000) from a middle-aged woman’s point of view. The novel’s main character has been subjected to several betrayals in her marriage and escapes into a relationship with an old acquaintance, a man from the Balkans, on a temporary work stay in Stockholm. This connection is also temporary, without any realistic hope of a future. It becomes clear how experiences during growing up strongly affect the woman even in the novel’s present.

The author’s global outlook was present long before „Dubbelporträtt”. Pleijel, who spent parts of her childhood in the United States, has never limited her writing to Swedish environments only: One novel, Lord Nevermore” (2000) is set largely in Australia and two others in Java. From this island come even some of Pleijel’s ancestors – from Java descended Pleijel’s grandmother Carolien, who is portrayed in the story „Eld och luft: Minnen av mormor” (2009), where her grandfather and his brother (portrayed in Vindspejare) emigrated from Sweden in 1890s, and in Java the author’s mother – pianist, translator and author Sonja Berg Pleijel was also born.

Agneta Pleijel has for a long time been active as a literary critic and debater and was head of culture at the newspaper Aftonbladet in the 1970s. The book „Litteratur för amatörer” (2012) collects articles and essays on mainly Swedish literature. Agneta Pleijel’s writing has been awarded many prestigious literary prizes since the 1980s. This includes the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize 2018.

When we asked Pleijel about game limits, she answered: ‘Game limits are crossed when the opponent shouts: ‘No!‘ or expresses dissatisfaction, but writing as a game has no limits (is limitless).‘

Agneta Pleijel will meet readers on Thursday, the 12^th of May at 4 p.m. in the hall of Tartu Public Library, the talk title is A Match with a Pen and a Brush. She converses with Esbjörn Nyström (Sweden). The talk focuses on Agneta Pleijel’s novel Dubbelporträtt. En roman om Agatha Christie och oskar Kokoschka” (Varrak, 2021, translated into Estonian by Anu Saluäär). The talk is in Swedish, with synchronised translation into Estonian.

Juha Hurme (Finland)

Juha Hurme (b 1959) is one of the most noteworthy prize-winning Finnish authors and a theater man whose sharp style and wonderful manners have made him one of the most watched Finnist culture persons. Hurme has written six novels, written and staged tens of plays, founded and led several theater institutions. In his work autobiography often is connected with his wide knowledge of culture and history. Especially close to him are the Finnish literary classics whose work he has often interpreted or hinted at. Last year Hurme “translated” into modern Finnish the first Finnish novel, Aleksis Kivi’s (1834–1872) Seven Brothers.

In 2017 Hurme won the most prestigious Finnish literary award Finlandia with his novel Niemi („Neem”, Est transl by Tiiu Kokla, 2021 Varrak). The novel speaks of the Finnsih cultural history starting with the Big Bang until 1809, when Finland became part of the Russian empire. At the same time, it is a book, immersed into the birth and the evolution of the whole planet, hard to connect with any genre. It is something resembling a long essay where the analytic powers of Hurme, a modern renaissance man, intellectuality and virtuosity with words are all connected.

Niemi is a book dedicated to Finland – and at the same time, a manifesto of tearing down the myth of Finland. It will disintegrate all pathos and sanctity, concerning the originality of the people and their truths. The background of the words is good humored and chastening laughter.

As the theme of Prima Vista is Game Limits this year, we asked Hurme what the game limits are for him and he replied:

‘I am a writer and a director. The root word of theater drama at first meant playing a game meant both for the participant and the public.
This way a dynamic drawing of lines happens where every performance means discussion about where the limits will disappear this time, respecting all the participants.
We can extend this principle to all kinds of artistic and social activity. We, humans, are animals capable of myth, we are born to lift limits and extend our grip. When we lose that ability of playing and discussing, it is replaced with prejudice, propaganda, and hatred, even bloodshed and war.‘

Juha Hurme will meet the readers on the 10th of May at 6 p.m. in Tartu Literature House. The talk will be led by Heidi Iivari in Estonian and Finnish. The event is supported by the Finnish Institute.

Alexander Genis (USA)

Alexander Genis (b 1953) is a genuine cosmopolitan: being of Jewish origin, he was born in Russia, grew up in Riga and graduated from the philology department of the Latvian State University; in 1977 he emigrated to the United States where he lives until today. His cultural activities are also rather extensive: he is a writer, essayist, literary critic, culturologist and radio anchorman. In the United States he started his career in New York where he among others met the winner of the Nobel literary prize Joseph Brodsky and Sergey Dovlatov. At present Genis lives in New Jersey, although it would be better to say in his case that he lives in books. His self evaluation might best be summarised by a vision that a cosmopolitan is not a citizen of the world but a tenant of the Babel Tower and a reader of the Alexandrian Library.

In the United States, Genis leads the weekly broadcast of Radio Liberty, Hour of America dedicated to introducing American culture to the Russian listener. He has also worked at the newspaper New American, issued by his friend Sergey Dovlatov. He has his own column ‘Reading Lessons‘ at the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Serbian author Milorad Pavić has said: ‘Genis has located himself in a position from where he can see Russia from America and America from Russia – through China.‘

For the Estonian reader Alexander Genis should be well known; his witty and dashing essays about world literature Reading lessons: kamasutra of a booklover („Lugemistunnid: raamatusõbra kamasuutra”) and Dovlatov and his surroundings: a philological novel („Dovlatov ja tema ümbrus: filoloogiline romaan”), both translated by Toomas Kall, have not only been published but have also become very close to the readers. Aleksander Genis has also been to Estonia several times and has in an interview to Toomas Kall confessed that for the first time he came here hitch-hiking in his teens. Genis has also participated in Prima Vista festival (2018), although due to an accident only through the internet. Now the public has an opportunity to greet that bright intellectual in person in our university town.

Alexander Genis will participate in the events of the Lotman’s day of our Russian programme and meet his public at his author’s night in the conference hall of the University of Tartu Library on the 11th of May at 5 p.m.

Birutė Jonuškaitė (Lithuania)

Birute Jonuškaite (b 1959) is a writer, essayist and publicist born in Poland, in the ethnic region of Lithuanians. Having graduated as journalist from the University of Vilnius, she remained living in Vilnius and has said she wouldn’t exchange Vilnius for any other city in the world, although she has had opportunities to stay in many places and even live there for some time.

Jonuškaite has published six novels, several selections of short stories, three collections of essays and two poetry books. She has repeatedly been awarded Lithuanian literary prizes for her work, and twice by the Lithuanina Cultural Ministry for her publicist work. With the decision of the President of Poland she was also awarded with a Golden Cross for special services in developing Polish/Lithuanian cultural relations (2016). In the same year Jonuškaite also got the cultural and art award of the Lithuanian government.

The first book translated into Estonian, her novel Maranta, was elected among the five best books for adults at the Lithuanian Book of the Year Competition. Its author got the 2020 Baltic Literary Award for this novel and its sequel Maestro.

In the opinion of critics Maranta can be read as a family story which is based on the background of the Sejny region coloring, traditions and mentality presented through the different lives, world, faith and value judgments of three women – grandmother, mother, and grandchild. The novel can also be interpreted as an exciting colorful detective story, ending unexpectedly for it is not clear if there was a body or not.

The author’s night of the Lithuanian author Birute Jonuškaite takes place on the 11th of May at 6 p.m. in the hall of the Tartu Public Library. Both her novel Maranta and work in general and her work as the chair of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union will be discussed. The talk will be led by Tiiu Sandrak and Tiina Kattel in Lithuanian and with consecutive translation into Estonian.

When asked what the game limits are, Birute Jonuškaite answered.

At the Prima Vista festival, I will present my novel Maranta. In it, a character named Maestro, an artist, expounds upon art:
‘Art must stand at the half-way point between reality and unreality. But really, I can’t stand this kind of bullshitting about what art must be or not be. In art, everything is allowed and all manner of nonsense is justified if the final result is good. … Rage, passion, the thickness of colors and lines, vitality, the attempt to bridle or bewitch the chaos of the world, all our demons, the attempt to understand our reality’s horror and beauty, to grasp the line connecting life and death, to mock our own devilry and the absurdity that surrounds us – that is what is important. The canvas is not for hanging our snots, but for the creation of a dense, provocative and very intimate space of our own which reflects what we were thinking as we painted. Forget all the lessons. The hand can learn the craft, but it can’t suppress the thought.‘

One of my characters claims that in art, games have no limits, yet another character disagrees with him. And what do I myself believe? Where does the fictional world of the writer end and where does reality begin? Do writers have the right to create characters in books and social media whose opinions differ from their own? Is it possible to create a believable character if you don’t have hints of that character within yourself? Does the effort to always test the limits necessarily cross those limits as well? In the background of the writer’s game, must there remain some light and hope, at least the smallest straw to save oneself with?

When I raise so many uncomfortable questions in my books, but do not specifically answer them, then too I am probably playing with my readers.

I only know that writing is like a game, like the creation of an alternative, parallel reality; and it helped me endure the hardest years of my life. Yes, it was an escape from reality into another, make-believe reality in which the writer takes on the role of ‘god‘ – you decide how your characters will live, you play with their fates, you dole out suffering or love, you push them to their ruin or offer them the means of salvation. It’s a kind of psychotherapy, and if it helps to play without limits – then you should. But this does not mean that your writing game, or especially the book that you will release into the world, is literature. You have to decide for yourself what from all that playing without limits can be given to the readers. And here, it seems to me, your internal censor has to be involved, the one that says: there are always universal values, such as those of which Aristotle spoke. But a question arises as to the ways in which people create those values. What tools and forms should the writer use? And in the name of what: to blacken life or to quicken it? In every geographic zone, people feel that their salvation requires a kind of harmony and fullness to life, that goodness and wisdom are characteristics of the highest standard for human beings. But… in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. (Ecc. 1.18)

The Polish writer Adam Zagajewski has said to me: ‘If you are already a poet or a writer, that means that you have something to say, though you don’t know what it is. If you knew from the beginning what you need to say then you wouldn’t bother with it. That unknown entices us. Many critics and poets can say that poetry or fiction is nothing, that the works don’t convey any knowledge, that there is nothing that the writer has to say. I don’t think this is true. There is something we are trying to say, though we don’t know what it is.‘

And what if writers, like other artists, are just toys in someone else’s hands – in the hands of He who knows ‘what it is‘, and who knows what He wants to say through their mouths?

My personal experience, which I wrote about in Maestro, published in Lithuania, a continuation of Maranta, is witness to the fact that the game is constantly being played, that the limits between it and the reality of life are constantly being erased. The final chapter of Maestro is called, ‘Maranta Diary‘. Here is one fragment from it:

‘I saw it in the antiques market. A greenish-yellow brass button with four horses’ heads all facing the same way connected by a cross – like some kind of swastika. A cute little thing, an old-fashioned, enticingly gleaming, sun cross – but who could I give it to? Someone who loves horses? Tadulis! Of course, Tadulis! Who else?

I buy it without bargaining, and while carrying it home… I suddenly break out in a sweat: Tadulis is nothing more than a character in Maranta!‘

Yet if you were to ask me how and why this character came into being in both my book and my life, I could not tell you in any detail. The time simply comes for my characters, hiding out somewhere in the corners of my mind, to come into the light of day.

‘I had nothing to do with it,‘ I write in the Maranta Diary, ‘I just opened the gates so that they could live freely. I stand somewhere over the rise, around the corner, behind a tree or a door – and watch them, listen to what they say, and write it down.

Sometimes they come at night. They sit down on the edge of the bed and start pulling the sheets off of me. They pull and pull ’til my shoulder is uncovered, then my whole side, I squirm and start to shiver, but I still don’t understand why my back is as cold as if I had fallen in snow, why my thigh has goose bumps, but do they care?‘

So who is the player of the game here? Me or them? I know my limits, or at least have a sense of them, but where are the limits for Him who plays with me?

Translation from Lithuanian by Rimas Uzgiris

Esbjörn Nyström (Sweden)

Esbjörn Nyström earned his PhD in German Literature from the University of Gothenburg in 2004. As of 2022, he is employed as a Research Advisor at Luleå University of Technology. He has previously been a lecturer and researcher in German at the universities in Gothenburg and Stockholm. At the University of Tartu, he taught Swedish philology in 2008–2011 and 2014–2017. Since 2017, Nyström has been engaged with the Prima Vista literary festival. His main research interests are editorial theory as well as dramas, opera librettos and screenplays from the 20th century in German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages.

Esbjörn Nyström will talk with the Swedish writer Agneta Pleijel on Thursday, the 12^th of May at 4 p.m. in the hall of Tartu Public Library, the talk title is A Match with a Pen and a Brush. The talk focuses on Agneta Pleijel’s novel „Dubbelporträtt. En roman om Agatha Christie och oskar Kokoschka” (Varrak, 2021, translated into Estonian by Anu Saluäär). The talk is in Swedish, with synchronised translation into Estonian.

Jill Kenny (Ireland)

With a B.A in English Literature and M.Sc in Multimedia, Jill Kenny is a writer based in the midlands of Ireland. Her work explores themes of interdependence and self-awarenes, and writing bios in third person induces a few-minute-long existential crisis for her, but is good inspiration for further writing. Recent publications: Future Perfect with Introduction by President Michael D. Higgins; Arc, Canada’s National Poetry Magazine. Recent competitions- Shortlisted: Black Horse Poetry Competition; Over the Edge New Writer of The Year Competition; Trócaire/Poetry Ireland Competition winner. Jill was awarded a National Mentoring Scheme with the Irish Writers Centre in November 2021, and with the guidance of Markievicz awardee, Joanna Walsh, is working on her first poetry collection.

Jill Kenny is the guest performer of the finale of TarSlämm taking place at Vilde and Vine on Friday, May 13^th at 7 p.m.

When asked where the limits of game are for her, Jill replied with a short creative piece.

Piece on Play

Play

the

end

I play with letters and words. It’s a game and it isn’t. Reading horizontally and vertically

makes sense to me. I currently want to play with the below piece to better suit my mood. For

example, jumble up the lines into a kind of sphere, bar the ‘end’ at the end, suggesting there

is no solution: just an eventual end to life, a life I spent contemplating this particular pattern.

It’s not a bad job: play.

_{The visual poem was first published
Arc, Canada’s national poetry magazine
Fall 2020}

Psychoanalyst D.W. Winicott believed children play to master anxiety or ideas that could

lead to anxiety. Does this make you sad? For whom?

Play is the coin rubbed against the scratch card. Win what exactly? Scratching the surface

hard enough will not magically produce a prize that wasn’t there, but the square will become

more distinct and may give some satisfaction. The discarded scratch card is also the game.

Writing appears: anything new is play.

Everything that disappears is play too.

If it comes back, you say.

Fresh ink and blank page is play. Duh, you say.

Blank page contains everything. Not Michelangelo, ‘The sculpture is already complete within

the marble block’ everything, just everything.

Once, outside in a winter in the Himalayas, snow fell on my notepad – the mountain was

white and the sky and the snow was too, and the more I wrote the more my notepad filled

with white.

I could never write it and that is fine.

Snowflakes dissolve into pages like ink into people. Both become light enough to play but

don’t know how.

Maybe we are linked to everything in unimaginable ways: the speck of dust and the dustless

mantelpiece. Literal speech, on purpose, reveals little.

Play has the energy reality doesn’t have to take itself seriously.

Play evokes words like connection, journey, time; they must be kicked barefoot like you

would an old patchy football, as far away as possible. Your throbbing foot will help you

understand.

Play runs away with itself when it’s allowed play. Play doesn’t apologise.

Play

The beginning

Jurga Vilé (Lithuania)

Traveler, dreamer, film translator, thought weaver Jurga Vilé (b in 1977) may divide her life into two – before and after the publication of her first book. She graduated from the University of Vinius, in the speciality of French language and literature, studied visual arts, filing and restoring films. Jurga has worked for years as a coordinator of theater and film festivals and written for culture journals. Her life changed in 2017 when her debut book The Siberian Haiku (2022 in Estonian) was published where she has put on paper for children a deporting story grown out of the fragmentary memories of her father and grandmother.

In 2018 her second book , „Švelnumo fabrikèlis” (A Small Factory of Tenderness, illustrated by Lina Zigmanté) was published; in 2012 followed „Chameleono sapnai” ( Chameleon’s Dreams, illustrated by Lina Sasnauskaité) and „Pulpas ir jo žalia koja” ( Pulpas and His Green Foot, illustrated by Akvilé Magicdust). The most recent literary news is a cinematographic play for the young and the grown-ups published in March „Nukritę iš Mėnulio. Sapnas apie Oskarą Milašių ir kitus paukščius” (Fallen from the Clouds. A Dream about Oscar Milosz and Other Birds).

Meeting and a workshop of Lina Itagaki and Jurga Vilé will take place on the 9th of May at 2 p.m. in the Tõstamaa seminar room of the University of Tartu Library. The talk will be mostly about The Siberian Haiku born in their collaboration. The reader can also participate in the workshop Letters in Match Boxes. The conversation is led by Tiina Kattel. The talk is in Lithuanian, with consecutive translation into Estonian. The workshop is in English and, in case of necessity, with consecutive translation into Estonian.

Lina Itagaki (Lithuania)

Lina Itagaki (b in 1979) studied Japanese at the University of Tokyo and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international economy in 2003. Later, she took up drawing and graduated from the Vilnius Art Academy in 2010 as a graphic artist. At present Lina Itagaki is a freelance artist, illustrator and comic book author.

Her, like Jurga Vilé’s debut book, is a graphic novel A Siberian Haiku (2017, in Estonian 2022).

In 2019 the second book illustrated by Lina Itagaki was published, a children’s book speaking of the Lithuanian history, and titled „Vilniaus rūmai ir jų šeimininkai“ (The Palace of Vilnius and its Masters) which was elected the most beautiful children’s book of the year and which got the diploma of the illustrators’ exhibition from the Bologna mess of children’s books.

Itagaki participates in several international projects, competitions, and exhibitions. In 2020 she drew a comic book about the Albanian scientist Sabiha Kasimati executed with the command of dictator Enver Hoxha in collaboration with the Albanian Institute of Investigating Communist Crimes.

In 2021 four books were published illustrated by Lina Itagaki. One of them, „Grybo auksas“ (Gold of Grybas) is the sixth book project based on real historical events she has been connected with. The book speaks of the famous Lithuanian sculptor Vincas Grybas killed by the Germans at the beginning of World War II.

At present, Lina Itagaki is illustrating another book based on history and is waiting for a time when she could draw pictures for funny books without war in them and where the character would live long and happily.

Adelaide Ivánova (Brazil)

Adelaide Ivánova is a Brazilian poet, photographer and activist. She has published ten collections of poetry, most recently „chifre“ (the horn) in 2021. Her book „o martelo“ (the hammer) was awarded Rio literary award in 2018 and the book has been translated into English, German, Spanish and Greek. Ivánova is also a documental photographer and her poems are intertwined with political issues.

Her thoughts about the game limits are as follows:

‘In an ideal society, the limits to any game would be respecting nature and life on Earth, which would mean respecting human and non-human animals, respecting art as a livelihood, respecting native peoples and their knowledge production etc. But we don’t live in an ideal society yet, so the limits of the game are definitely those imposed by asset managers, landlords, billionaires, armies etc.‘

Adelaide Ivánova performs at the event Poetry Party With The Lyrical Self in the rooms and the courtyard of the culture club Salong on Saturday, May 14th at 7 p.m.

Nikola Madzirov (North Macedonia)

Nikola Madzirov is a poet and translator from North Macedonia. He has said that he is ‘a descendant of refugees against his will‘, which refers to his ancestors’ fleeing during Balkan wars in the beginning of 20th century. His poems hold an air of homelessness or non-belonging, although at the same time they are rooted. Madzirov’s poems have been translated into more than 30 languages, in Estonian his collection of selected poems „Valgus ja tolm“ (Light and Dust) was published in 2016.

When asked what the game limits are, Nikola Madzirov answered.

‘For five decades I’ve been living in a town among three state borders constructed by changing history and by the flags torn by the wind and wars. It’s the ideal place where one can understand the temporariness of the absolutistic myths, a place where one can touch the silence of the urge for non-belonging. As a child I would go on the top of the Belasica mountain, where the borders of the three states meet, and I would run in circles watching how my shadow crosses the three borders and comes back to my body, safe and tired. What scares me now is the world’s game with the borders. I can see how the shadows of the tanks are crossing them, scarring our trust in time.‘

Nikola Madzirov performs at the event Poetry Party With The Lyrical Self in the rooms and the courtyard of the culture club Salong on Saturday, May 14th at 7 p.m.

Nyk de Vries (Netherlands)

Photo: RV voor Asman (c) Rogier Maaskant

Nyk de Vries is a poet, writer and musician, who grew up in a small Frisian village Noardburgum. He writes in both Frisian and Dutch and has published several novels and collections of prose poetry. From 2019 to 2021 he was Dichter fan Fryslân, poet laureate of Friesland, in which position he made eight poetry films with filmmaker Herman Zeilstra. His readings are often accompanied with music and video, which is also the case in Tartu.

About the theme of this year’s festival he has said:

‘ For me, the game is to take the reader along with relatively understandable language and then, almost imperceptibly, to lead him or her into a world that is a lot more ambiguous. That is not without reason. I grew up in a small community where not everyone read a book every day. I would like to reach the people I come from. Of course there are limits to this game.‘

Nyk de Vries performs at the event Poetry Party With The Lyrical Self in the rooms and the courtyard of the culture club Salong on Saturday, May 14th at 7 p.m.

Māris Šverns trio Baložu pilni pagalmi (Latvia)

Baložu pilni pagalmi have been a cornerstone of the Latvian indie scene since 1994 and are widely regarded as a local underground cult band. Each of their records is widely anticipated amongst their devoted fans. The band is a constantly experimenting phenomenon – breaking the cliche notions of the right kind of music. Baložu pilni pagalmi create welcoming melodies about everyday life with a unique sound, which allows listeners to experience that elusive catharsis of early morning hour revelations after a night spent in good company. (C) Positivus Festival (2017).

Bandcamp: https://balozupilnipagalmi.bandcamp.com.

The band has released 12 full-length song albums, not including five solo albums by songwriter Māris Šverns, the last of which was released in 2019 and co-created with poet Madara Gruntmane.

Line-up:

Māris Šverns

Klāvs Lauls

Uldis Gedra

Baložu pilni pagalmi will perform at the concert Writers in Music at the culture club Salong on Thursday, May 12^th at 8 p.m.

Nina Lykke (Norway)

Nina Lykke (b 1965 in Trondheim) is a Norwegian writer. She grew up in Oslo, graduated from the Copenhagen college of graphic art and has since 1989 worked in Oslo as a graphic designer.

She has written three novels and a collection of stories; her novel Full spredning (2019) was translated into Estonian by Sigrid Tooming and was published in 2021.

Nina Lykke’s writings are characterised by satire, mixed with humour and tragic themes. The protagonist of Full spredning Elin works and lives (!) in a small room of a G. P. medical centre, looking back at her marriage of about twenty years and its break up, talking at times to Tore, a plastic skeleton standing in the corner of her room. The book is charming with its wittiness and sharp observations about the work of a G. P. and modern life. Its main themes are faithfulness and faithlessness, breaking up of a marriage, the real and imaginary life of the middle class, growing old, medicine, dementia, and life in the social media. Full spredning is Nina Lykke’s fourth novel which won the Norwegian Brage literary award in 2019 and was also staged at the Norwegian national theatre in 2021.

To the question where do game limits/boundaries lie she replied:

‘I see humour and comedy in almost everything. So for me, there really is no limit to «game» (which I in this case translate to humour/laughter) and playfulness.
My only objection, or limit, is when everything in a story – or book/film – is comical, because then the humour disappears. The basic tone has to be serious, so that the humour becomes sort of a byproduct.‘

The talk with Nina Lykke will take place on Thursday, May 12^th at 6 p.m. in the hall of Tartu Public Library and will be led by her translator Sigrid Tooming. The talk will be in Norwegian, with synchronised translation into Estonian.

Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce (Latvia)

Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce (b 1988) is a Latvian playwright and author whose original dramas, dramatizations and librettos are staged both in bigger and smaller Latvian theaters and also outside Latvia. In Estonia for example, but also in Lithuania, Russia and Israel. Bugavičute-Pēce also writes scripts for film, TV-serials, and radio dramas.

One of her books, The Boy Who Saw in Darkness has been translated into Estonian (by Contra) and is very much recommended by the Estonian Children’s Literature Center. Theater group Vaba Lava has also staged her play I Had a Niece.

Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce has written a drama version of The Boy Who Saw in Darkness. The book was presented in the lobby of the Latvian National Theater right before the premiere of the play. The book is based on the author’s personal experience. Although, as she says herself, it is not a documentary. Both in the book and the play the author’s own and her husband’s experience become mixed as well as her experience as a mother. The book and the play are not quite identical, though.

Since 2015 Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce has been the official dramaturg of the Liepāja Theater.

The author’s night of Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce (joins us on Zoom) will take place on the 13^th of May at 6 p.m. in the Music Department of the University of Tartu Library. At the author’s night the work of Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce in general shall be discussed as well as her work as a dramaturg and her book The Boy who Saw in Darkness’ (in Estonian in 2021), interesting both to the young and the grown-ups. The discussion will be conducted by Contra, music from Eerik Kokk. The talk is in Latvian, with translation into Estonian.

The public can also watch Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce’ s play I Had a Niece on the 11^th and 12th May in the theater hall of the Estonian National Museum. The dramaturg is Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce. The director of the play is Valters Sīlis, the play has been translated by Contra. Cast: Rea Lest and Henrik Kalmet. Tickets by Piletilevi.

Tariq Goddard (UK)

Tariq Goddard is the author of six novels, which have been shortlisted for and won the Whitbread, Wodehouse, Commonwealth and Independent Publishers Awards. He is the Founder and Publisher of Repeater Books, and previously Zer0 Books. His new novel High John The Conqueror is out in November of this year.

When asked what the game limits are, Tariq Goddard answered.
‘There are many games in life, but life is not one of them.‘

Tariq Goddard and Carl Neville will perform on Friday, May 13th at 5 p.m. (ONLINE ONLY)

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/315793637369833

Rewatchable live stream: Kirjanduslinn Tartu YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu40s0q4_mr4WixxVPFefxQ

They introduce the anthology The Repeater Book of Heroism. The guests will be interviewed by Berk Vaher. The talk is in English.

Who are 21st century heroes?

Carl Neville (UK)

Carl Neville has written two short books on film for Zer0, one on British cinema of the 90s and the other on American cinema of the 1970s as well as two novels, Resolution Way and Eminent Domain for Repeater. He is also the film critic for Tribune. His writing reflects his interest in class, politics and popular culture.

When asked what the game limits are, Carl Neville answered.
‘I think as long as the participants are all there voluntarily and the rules are transparent then there should be no limits as such.‘

Carl Neville and Tariq Goddard will perform on Friday, May 13th at 5 p.m. (ONLINE ONLY)

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/315793637369833

Rewatchable live stream: Kirjanduslinn Tartu YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu40s0q4_mr4WixxVPFefxQ

They introduce the anthology The Repeater Book of Heroism. The guests will be interviewed by Berk Vaher. The talk is in English.

Who are 21st century heroes?

Timur Vermes (Germany)

Timur Vermes is one of the greatest surprises in German literature during the recent decade as his debut novel Er ist wieder da (2012) became a real bestseller staying on top for five months. Today the novel has been translated into more than 40 languages, including Estonian and the director David Wnendt made a popular film of it in 2015.

In a satirical novel Er ist Wieder Da (Look Who’s Back) Hitler comes to life on a Berlin wasteland. It is 2011 and he is very much surprised at what is happening: many Turks everywhere, the state led by a woman and the forward-looking TV wasting its resources on foolish cooking and talk shows. Everyone who meets Hitler thinks him to be a brilliant comic and quite soon he is discovered by the TV: he gets his personal comedy show and starts gathering fans. At the same time he does nothing but talks about what he really thinks.

The author sharply travesties the easily manipulated present day mass media and party politics. If at first the reader can laugh at Hitler, then later the flaws of the present day life are laughed at with him. The question if this is appropriate, whether the author is testing the game limits is easy to arise.

Parodying Hitler started in the German nightclubs in the 20ies of the last century; in 1940 Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator was released and the show business of today has offered lots of ridiculing sketches of Hitler as a clown, a failure, or a madman. Vermes’ Hitler, however, is not only seized by his paranoia and obsessions, but is willing to learn, enraptured by technical progress, consistent, and an easy talker. We might ask whether it is not an approach humanizing Hitler too much? Or maybe the author simply wants to wake up the reader, hinting that the people who cause great catastrophes may not be clowns or madmen at all?

Timur Vermes was born in 1967 in Nuremberg, his mother was a German and his father a Hungarian. He studied history and politics at the university and worked before his debut as a novelist as a journalist contributing to newspapers and acting as a shadow author. By today he has published another novel, a grotesque story about the refugee crisis Die Hungrigen und die Satten and an experimental mystery novel U.

When asked what the game limits are, Timur Vermes answered.

‘Every game ends when it intersects with reality. Therefore the possibility of every player to stop is of uttermost importance. The one who stops, no more plays (along). If for one player it is impossible to stop, the game is over for everybody.‘

The author’s night with Timur Vermes is titled Useful Playmates and takes place on the 9^th of May at 17.30 in the hall of the Tartu Public Library where Olaf Mertelsmann has a talk with the author. The focus of the talk will be the bestselling satirical novel Look Who’s Back about Hitler’s coming to life in the Berlin of today (in Estonian in 2013, transl Piret Pääsuke. The talk will be in German with synchronised translation into Estonian.