Leelo Tungal and Triin Soone

Leelo Tungal (1947) is an Estonian author who has graced the Estonian language with almost all possible ways of poetic expression and done it in exceptional volume and exceptionally well. Poems and stories for children? There are dozens of books full of them! Poems for adults? Same! Memoirs? Who doesn’t know comrade child’s velvet and sawdust? What about lyrics? They will be sounding on the radio, concert stages and song festivals. Libretti, plays, radio plays? One only needs to mention her collaboration with Raimo Kangro and Olav Ehala. Tungal’s work can be counted in not hundreds but thousands – and what she has said there has been recorded in tens of thousands of hearts. On top of all this, Tungal, who made her debut in 1966, shows no signs of exhaustion. Her most recent book, Laste maitse (2023) is a collection of poems aimed at schoolchildren and inspired by Estonian proverbs. The book demonstrates a combination of Tungal’s strengths – a playful and witty sense of language, intuitive empathy and a profound respect for the Estonian language and cultural history. Leelo Tungal will speak to Triin Soone, the director of the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre.