Johanna Rannik (Estonia)

Johanna Rannik‘s more serious relationship with literature began in the second grade when she wrote free-verse lines for a Christmas poetry contest: “These eyes are all around us / yet no one sees them.” At the same time, her first creative crisis occurred because, to fit the theme of the contest, she had to hastily weld a clumsy verse stanza to the end of the poem: “When trees have lost their leaves / those eyes peep out through trees / they wait for Christmas Eve.” As a freelance cultural critic, her main areas of focus are theatre and societal critique, but to her surprise, she increasingly finds herself involved with literature – largely thanks to the trust, support, and ideas of the editorial team at Värske Rõhk. Publishing prose centred on her own emotions and experiences still makes her anxious and feels foreign, but she feels that through such vulnerability, she becomes increasingly authentic in her work. As a community-minded individual, Johanna Rannik is a member of the Estonian Theatre Researchers’ and Critics’ Association and the Student Lodge of Theatre Studies, serves on juries, and teaches consent to school students. She loves compound words and feels comfortable in melancholy.