The Stories of a Hundred Nations: Indrek Koff, Mari Abel, Toomas Täht

Indrek Koff (1975) recently became a focus of greater attention in connection with the writer’s salary – he was selected as one of the recipients of the salary. The decision is a welcome one because Koff stands out with his extremely wide grasp; he has written poetry, prose and children’s literature. Not to mention the fact that before the writer’s salary, Koff was mostly known as a translator of French literature.

One of the characteristics of Koff’s poetry and prose is eschewing genre boundaries. The best known example of that is his ‘hysterical tract’ entitled On the Vitality of Estonianness (2010), which contains a great number of colloquial catchphrases. A fateful encounter happened when Koff met Raido Mürk, a wine boy and misanthrope. It was Mürk’s unprintable ideas of culture and literature that caused major shifts in Koff’s consciousness and these alarming consequences can be witnessed on Saturday, 28 May at 8 pm at the Estonian Writers’ Union. There are rumours that Koff has taken a keen interest in mosses and the voluminous, yet largely confidential folklore related to mosses. Word has it that Koff has got hold of a number of moss fairy tales, the study of which has left its mark on the writer. Koff has somehow managed to involve two young actors in his activities; Mari Abel, best known for the most famous productions of the Von Krahl Theatre, and Toomas Täht, who was allegedly lured to Estonia from a Wiesbaden theatre with the help of Raido Mürk. Sander Udikas will attempt to balance out all this talk of moss with his clarinet and saxophone music.

The event is in Estonian.