According to tradition, the HeadRead Literary Festival, which takes place in the last week of May, taps into the trends that have stood out in Estonian literature during the year. The festival will feature Kairi Look, an established children’s author who made her novel debut early this year; Lilli Luuk, who has become one of the most important Estonian prose writers of the 2020s; Katrin Ruus, whose collection of short stories caused quite a stir; PI Filimonov, who sheds light on a parallel reality; entrepreneur and writer Armin Kõomägi; publishers and writers Tauno Vahter and Tiina Tammer; poets and musicians Indrek Koff and Kristiina Ehin; novelist turned children’s writer Tiina Laanem; biologist and children’s writer Juhani Püttsepp; cartoonist and writer Ave Taavet; poet and children’s writer Triinu Laan; and playwright and poet Andra Teede.
Women’s poetic voices are assembled by the traditional format of Nice Poetry, which is once again takes place in Ait. The Poetry Mass, dating back to the early years of the festival, is traditionally held in the Niguliste Museum and brings together Estonian and international poets. The points of contact between literature and music and the underground can be explored at the event of DGUG (Degenerate Underground) at the Writers’ Union, where Riste Sofie Käär and Richard Jerbach, among others, will perform.
Very young poetry is presented in the traditional format of Bright Young Things, while the students of the VHK School interpret Estonian literature. Established actors present their favourite text under the ‘Temporal Texts in Timeless Theatre’ and young people read Marie Under’s texts in a poetry reading competition.
Jaan Malin’s event ‘Crazed Tallinn’ gives the festival a dose of surrealism and the mixed reality production of electron.art reveals the textual richness of reality. Võru and Chuvash languages will meet in the programme of the acoustic trio Tarai, and Jan and Elo Rahman, while a mix of Persian and Estonian culture, selected by Doris Kareva, will be presented at the concert-poetry evening ‘Wine of Your Words’. An evening of Ukrainian poetry curated by Katja Novak will take place at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre; Sirli Staub and Ene-Mari Talivee will lead a literary pub crawl, and the young Estonian Goncourt jury will announce their favourite works of fresh French literature.
The HeadRead literary festival takes place in Tallinn from 28 May to 1 June.
The programme is available here. The programme may be subject to changes.
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For interviews and author photos, please contact press@headread.ee or Tõnu Karjatse +372 5059442.
