Piret Jaaks

Piret Jaaks (1980) is an Estonian prose writer, playwright and screenwriter. She entered the literary scene in the early noughties as a member of the Tartu NAK group, starting with short prose. She gained wider attention in 2011, when her play about the trauma of a breakup, Näha roosat elevanti, won the drama competition of the Estonian Theatre Agency. This was followed by the collection of magical-realist short prose, Linnalegend (2015), which won her the Betti Alver Debut Prize. Jaaks has published six prose works and more than twenty drama texts, which have been produced in almost all the major theatres in Estonia. She made her novel debut last year when her historical novel Taeva tütred (2023) won third place at the Estonian novel competition. It is a story about the Estonian-born Baltic-German missionary Hedwig Büll, whose selfless acts during the First World War could be compared to those of Mother Teresa. The novel gained a lot of attention: it was called a mission story with a rare power of suggestion, with its atmosphere created with such skill it feels like the author was there a hundred years ago. Jaaks was awarded the Medal of the Estonian Heritage Society for the novel. Piret Jaaks will speak to Sveta Grigorjeva.