Maarja Pärtna (Estonia) 

Maarja Pärtna is a writer, translator, and editor who focuses on socio-ecological themes in her work. She has published five poetry collections. Her spatial poetic collection “Vivarium”, published in 2019, combines historical trauma with climate anxiety and articulates a growing sense of risk perception in an apparently stable welfare society. Her prose poetry collection “Living City”, published in 2022, focuses on urban nature, the possibility of better coexistence with non-human animals, as well as lyrical childhood memories. These lead back to the traces of ecocide from Estonia’s oil shale industry, which is one of the local manifestations of the global ecological crisis.

Pärtna has studied English language and literature, as well as world literature, at the University of Tartu. As a translator, she has rendered essays by Kathleen Jamie, Margaret Atwood, Edward Said, and Robert Macfarlane into Estonian. She has worked as a literary editor for publications such as Müürileht and Värske Rõhk and has edited several poetry collections. Pärtna has been awarded the Gustav Suits Poetry Prize, Juhan Liiv Poetry Prize, and the title of Young Carrier of Culture of Tartu. Her poems have been translated into ten languages.

Pärtna’s impossible desire is to live in a world where protected areas are not necessary because we have learned to live in balance with nature. She explains: “We would then know other species and their needs well enough, and leave them enough space so that as many creatures as possible can survive the dangerous Anthropocene era. In such a world, human activity would fit within planetary boundaries. But unfortunately, even protected areas are not truly protected now, and resources such as timber and minerals are still extracted from there.”

Friday, May 12th 21.00 at the Embassy premises on the corner of Rüütli Street and Town Hall Square