*By K
Writing / Reviewing
[In Looming] Essay “Metsa poole”
Essay x my grandmother's garden, the Estonian musical film "Bumpy" (1981), and returning to one's home as a changeling. In Looming, 8/2028.
[For Sirp] Review of “El peligro de estar cuerda” by Rosa Montero
Review of the Spanish writer Rosa Montero’s book on madness, “El peligro de estar cuerda.” Published in Estonian as “Oht olla hullumeelne” by Kirjastus Puänt.
[For Sirp] Review of “Talvine teekond” by Asta Põldmäe
A homage to my favourite Estonian writer and editor Asta Põldmäe, disguised as a review of her latest story collection "Talvine teekond." Published in Sirp.
A Touch Too Late
Here they are, the tiny statuettes. I could place each one of them in my pocket and make it my companion.
2023: Favorite Books & Other Writing
Best books of 2023 – what I read, wrote, and reviewed this year.
October ’23 | Read & Reviewed
Best of what I've been reading, from books to essays to stories, October 2023 edition.
What Is an Animal?
There was one in the clouds. At all times and as yet: in the air and under water, on and under the ground, in forests and on fields. In this language, on these shelves: animals.
September ’23 | Read & Reviewed
Best of what I've been reading, from books to essays to stories, September 2023 edition.
Summer 2023 | Read & Reviewed
Best of what I've been reading, from books to essays to stories, Summer 2023 edition. Eco-criticism, literary studies, some fiction.
[In Looming] Short Story “Bernini inglid”
My short story "Bernini inglid" was published in the Estonian literary magazine Looming, 7/2023.
[For Sirp] Review of The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
Review of The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen. Published in the Estonian cultural weekly Sirp, 07.07.2023.
[For Sirp] Review of “Thirtieth Year” by Ingeborg Bachmann
Review of "The Thirtieth Year" by Ingeborg Bachmann. Published in the Estonian cultural weekly Sirp, 19.05.2023.
May 2023 | Read & Reviewed
Best of what I've been reading, from books to essays to stories, May 2023 edition. Rachel Cusk, Kay Ryan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Ben Lerner, et al
Young Writer Award 2023 by Looming
It's official! On April 28, 2023, I was awarded the annual debuting author's award by Looming.
[For Looming] Review of “Vaade” by Jan Kaus
My review of "Vaade" and another essay collection by Kaus "Kolm punkti" was published in Looming's 100th-anniversary issue in April 2023.
Spring 2023 | Read & Reviewed
Best of what I've been reading, from books to essays to stories, spring 2023 edition. Annie Ernaux, Frank Kermode, Jan Kaus et al.
[For Sirp] Review of “La place” by Annie Ernaux
Review of the first Annie Ernaux book, "La place", translated to Estonian. The Published in Sirp, 03.03.2023.
January 2023 | Read & Reviewed
Best of what I've been reading, from books to essays to stories, January 2023 edition. Jon Fosse, Alejandro Zambra et al.
2022 Favorite Books & Other Writing
Best books of 2022 – what I read, wrote, and reviewed this year.
[In Looming] Short Story “Pool Kaks”
My short story "Pool kaks" was published in the Estonian literary magazine Looming, 11/2022.
[For Sirp] Review of “Margarita” by Anni Kytömäki
Review of Finlandia Prize 2021 winner Anni Kytömäki’s novel “Margarita.” Published in Sirp, 14.10.2022.
September 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, September 2022 edition.
[For Looming] Review of “Eesti novell 2022”
Review of the "best-of" collection of Estonian short stories "Eesti novell 2022," published in literary magazine Looming, 8/2022.
August 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, August 2022 edition.
[For Sirp] Review of The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing
Review of Doris Lessing's The Sweetest Dream ("Kõige ilusam unelm" in Estonian), reviewed for the Estonian cultural weekly Sirp.
July 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, July 2022 edition.
June 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, June 2022 edition.
Le jeune homme by Annie Ernaux – Memory-images Outside of Time
In his 1896 book Matter and Memory, the French philosopher Henri Bergson defines two types of memory. The first, habit memory, is of automatic and utilitarian nature – it repeats the already-learned past actions to achieve present means. Recollective memory, however, is of spiritual nature. It’s the memory par excellence that helps us orient in […]
[For Sirp] Review of The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
The Sea, The Sea was published in 1978 and received The Booker Prize the same year. As it was recently republished in Estonia in Varrak’s Kuldsari (Golden Series), I reread and reviewed it for Sirp.
May 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, May 2022 edition.
April 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, April 2022 edition.
[For Looming] Short Story “Roosiaed”
The short story "Roosiaed" by Karola Karlson was published in Looming 5/2022.
[For Sirp] Review of Weather by Jenny Offill
Jenny Offill's novel Weather asks how to survive on the pre-climate-apocalypse planet and proposes apathetic self-irony as one potent analgesic.
All Things Nice Hide in Shadows – Review of Checkout 19
A friend recently told me that she was participating in a translation contest. Jokingly, I suggested that the organizers should have picked a chapter from Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett as the source text. My friend smiled, slightly disconcerted. That’s right. That was the book. It isn’t only the tirelessly poetic and ornamental prose – […]
March 2022 | Reads & Reviews
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, March 2022 edition.
February 2022 | Reading & Writing
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, February 2022 edition.
January 2022 | Reading & Writing
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, January 2022 edition.
2021 Favorites: Books, Essays & Other Writing
Best of 2021: recommendations on books, essays, and other literary works.
September 2021 | Reading & Writing
August 2021 Reading Recommendations July 2021 Reading Recommendations June 2021 Reading Recommendations Essays, reviews, articles #Magazine #Culture #Fashion | Purple Magazine issue 36, Mexico City The best magazines are usually the ones without much commercial interest + the ones that appear quarterly. The Purple Magazine published a new issue biannually and the quality of research, […]
[For Müürileht] Existentialism and Ecstasy: Mushrooming as a Recreational Act
On John Cage’s mycophilia, the ecstasy of losing oneself in forest-wandering, and the Post-Soviet heritage of mushrooming. in Estonian. Published in the September 2021 issue of Estonian hedonist-intellectual magazine Müürileht.
Co-creation x Puänt
Collaboration project with Puänt bookstore in Tallinn. Find some of my fave books in the store.
August 2021 | Reading & Writing
Best of what I've been reading, from essays to short stories to interviews, August 2021 edition.
Acne Paper by Thomas Persson
A fashion magazine disguised as the guardian of culture, the Acne Paper magazine invites the reader to an elitist aesthetic feast.
July 2021 | Reading & Writing
June 2021 Reading Recommendations May 2021 Reading Recommendations April 2021 Reading Recommendations WEEK 30 [ ] #exhibition #photography | Shomei Tomatsu + Daido Moriyama at MEP Paris The exhibition of the two Japanese post-WW2 photographers at MEP Paris features boldly contrasted B&W pictures of nightlife in Shinjuku, public protests, casual litter from the street, compilations […]
June 2021 | Reading & Writing
May 2021 Reading Recommendations April 2021 Reading Recommendations March 2021 Reading Recommendations WEEK 23 Exhibitions seen this week: the sweeping color landscapes by Hans Hartung at Galerie Perrotin and the sculptures by the French sculptor César, exhibited at César & César & César at Almine Rech. #book #literature | The Actual by Saul Bellow This […]
May 2021 Reading & Writing
April 2021 Reading Recommendations March 2021 Reading Recommendations WEEK 20 Reouverture week in Paris, finalement. Cafe terraces open for reading and museums open for contemplative walks, it takes a certain willpower to resist the constant temptation to leave home. After visits to a couple of art exhibitions, a film on Françoise Sagan + interviews with […]
April 2021 Reading & Writing
March 2021 Reading Recommendations February 2021 Reading Recommendations January 2021 Reading Recommendations 2020 Book & Reading Recommendations WEEK 17 The last weekend and the better half of this week were spent reading Vladimir Nabokov’s Ada or Ardor. With its enviably good prose and thoroughly enjoyable trilingual dialogue, it left such a heavy mark that most […]
March 2021 Reading Recommendations
February 2021 Reading Recommendations January 2021 Reading Recommendations 2020 Book & Reading Recommendations WEEK 12 Choose a weekend, find a novel – it must be in a physical book form, read it in a single day. This is my currently most-beloved form of acclimatizing my brain to a different wavelength, alternating thoughts from the quotidian […]
February 2021 Reading & Writing
January 2021 Reading Recommendations 2020 Book & Reading Recommendations WEEK 8 For every fleeting momentum of reading recently-published literary works, I fall back into the rhythm of reading 20th-century authors. This week, it’s been Saul Bellow’s nonfiction writing and George Saunders’ thoughtful and amusing analysis of the Russian short story masters Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev and […]
January 2021 Reading & Writing
Best of what I've been reading and seeing, January 2021 edition.
2020 Favorites: Books, Essays & Other Writing
One of the positive side effects of the gloomy and mesmerizing year numbered 2020 was having more time to read. But it wasn’t just due to the Godardesque SMS* sent by the planet that turned literature into a handy medium of escapism. Writing this article has been obstructed by the fact that all the books […]