Indrek Koff (1975) is an Estonian poet, prose writer, playwright, translator and musician. Koff began his literary journey as a translator and has mediated numerous works of literary fiction from French and Portuguese into Estonian, including the works of Michel Houellebecq, Emmanuel Carrère, Maurice Maeterlinck, Claude Lévi-Straussi, Paolo Coelho and Joaquim Maria Machado de Assisi. Koff’s own fiction stands out not only for its diversity of genres, but also for its experimentality – Koff seems to be constantly looking for expressive intermediate forms. The most well-known example of this is Eestluse elujõust (‘The Vitality of Estonianness’, 2010), self-identifying as a ‘hysterical treatise’, an ingenious and witty attempt to bring together the current expressions of the Estonian language and make them a whole in their own right. It is also almost impossible to imagine Estonia’s newest children’s literature without Indrek Koff’s books; his latest work Kuhu lapsed said? (2021) (again) highlights (again) the virtues of rhyme-rhythmic poetry. Koff’s latest work Ära oota midagi (2025) is also not easily classified – it is a graphic novel in which Koff’s airy prose, illustrations by the Ukrainian artist Olena London and Dan Mikkin’s graphic design play an equally important role. Koff’s semi-autobiographical book draws inspiration from the Soviet era, the relationship between the author and his grandfather Herbert.
Performs at
| Date | Event Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, 29 May at 16:00 | Lilli Luuk and Indrek Koff | Estonian Writers’ Union |
