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February 24, 2023
For immediate release, January 2, 2023 (the 133rd anniversary of beloved Estonian author Hendrik Visnapuu´s birth)
Estonian American National Council announces call for submissions: Candidates for the 2024 EANC Visnapuu Award accepted through April 1, 2023.
Candidate Nominees may be put forth by individuals and/or organizations in Estonia, the United States, and abroad. The Panel of Judges will select up to six (6) nominees by October 1, 2023. The EANC Visnapuu Award winner will be announced on January 2, 2024.
The Estonian American National Council (EANC) re-established the Henrik Visnapuu literature and culture award in 2021. Named in celebration of the beloved Estonian poet best known for his writings that expressed such love for his homeland of Estonia, the Visnapuu literary award was first established in the United States in 1952. The more than half-century award tradition came to an end in 2007 with the passing of the founders.
The ERKÜ Visnapuu Auhind (EANC Visnapuu Award, for short) is awarded biannually with the winner announced every other year on Visnapuu’s birthday, January 2nd. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in literature, prose or poetry, the arts, scholarly works about Estonia, or for lifetime achievement in the patriotic spirit of Visnapuu.
Works to be considered may be in Estonian and/or other languages, and may be published in or outside of Estonia, although the award assigns preference to works from the Estonian diaspora community, works about Estonians born outside of Estonia and/or within the Estonian diaspora, and to those which highlight or express Estonian culture and/or history to the world at large. Eligible works will have been published or presented in the past two years (2021-2022) though candidates may also be nominated for outstanding, influential, and culmination of lifetime achievement.
The purpose of the award is to introduce and showcase Estonia to the world, while also informing the public and community about the mission and the work of the Estonian American National Council in the realm of the preservation, promotion and fostering of the Estonian language and culture abroad (see www.estosite.org).
The EANC is pleased to present this important award in collaboration with two partners in Estonia: Eesti Kirjanike Liit, www.ekl.ee (the Estonian Writers’ Union, a professional association of writers and literary critics); and Luunja vallavalitsus, https://luunja.ee (the municipal government of Luunja, the village in Estonia where Henrik Visnapuu was born.
The winner will be awarded a cash prize of up to $3,000 (funded by EANC) as well as a commissioned work of art by an Estonian artist.
Each of the three partner organizations will name one representative to the selection panel. The EANC Visnapuu Award Panel for 2023 comprises: literary scholar Epp Annus (USA, representing the Estonian American National Council); Estonian poet Jürgen Rooste (Estonia, representing the Estonian Writers’ Union) and Luunja official and high school principal Toomas Liivamägi (Estonia, representing Luunja municipal government). Judges may also consult with outside experts in specific genres and other cultural organizations when necessary.
The Deadline to Submit Nominations is April 1, 2023. Nominees may be put forth by individuals and/or organizations in Estonia, the United States, and abroad.
The Panel of Judges will select up to six (6) nominees by October 1, 2023. The EANC Visnapuu Award winner will be announced on January 2, 2024.
The award will be presented in person at an awards ceremony in the United States or Estonia. The first EANC Visnapuu Award (2022) was presented to author Elin Toona.
Award history and background
The original Visnapuu literary award was instituted by the Worldwide Estonian Literary Society after Henrik Visnapuu´s death in New York, in 1951. The Henrik Visnapuu Foundation was established for purposes of the award on October 21, 1952. The first contribution from Sweden originated from the proceeds of the Henrik Visnapuu memorial and from royalties earned from Visnapuu´s published memoirs, Päike ja jõgi. From 1991 the Visnapuu Foundation has been managed by architect Herk Visnapuu and his family. Other managers of the Foundation have been Andres Visnapuu, Elmar Tampõld, Tõnu Parming and Mardi Valgemäe.
The first winner of the revived EANC VIsnapuu Award, presented in 2022, was Ms. Elin Toona for Lifetime Achievement and her memoir Into Exile: A Life Story of War and Peace.
Visnapuu Award winners from 1952 – 2007 can be found listed in Wikipedia; until the early 1990s almost all award winners were expatriate Estonian writers, starting with August Mälk, Marie Under, and Karl Ristikivi, all the way to Elin Toona and Helga Nõu. 1983 was an exception, when the award was given to Annus Rävala (Helmut Tarand), who lived in Estonia, for his work ´Vorkuta värssid.´ Arved Viirlaid, Arvo Mägi and Bernard Kangro all received the Visnapuu award repeatedly. Upon the restoration of Estonian independence, the award was also bestowed on authors living in Estonia, including poet Hando Runnel in 1990, and historian Mart Laar (for his biography of Jakob Hurt and other works) in 1997.
EANC has received consent from Henrik Visnapuu´s descendant Andres Visnapuu for the re-dedication of the Visnapuu award.
About Henrik Visnapuu Henrik Visnapuu was born on January 2, 1890 in Helme parish, Estonia and died on April 3, 1951 on Long Island, New York. Henrik Visnapuu is one of Estonian greatest patriotic poets, writer of memoirs, and a prolific literary critic.
Visnapuu together with Marie Under were the most influential poets in the literary group Siuru, which modernised the written Estonian language and raised Estonian literature to European and world literary standards.
Visnapuu was born in the village of Luunja, was a student at the Reola school and, later, a student at the Ropka school. In 1907 at Narva Gümnaasium Visnapuu passed his exam to become an elementary school teacher and went to work at the village school. In 1913 he taught the Estonian language and literature at the Girls Gymnasium in Tartu. Visnapuu went on to study classical philology at Tartu University, and was a member of the Sakala fraternity. From 1935-1944 Visnapuu worked as a cultural advisor for the National Propaganda Office of the Republic of Estonia.
Visnapuu fled to Germany to escape the Soviet occupation in 1944 and emigrated to the United States in 1949. Henrik Visnapuu died suddenly after a heart attack in New York on April 3, 1951. He was 61 years old. Henrik Visnapuu was reburied in his final resting place at Metsakalmistu cemetery in Tallinn on June 26, 2018.
One of the most prolific and versatile of Estonian authors, Henrik Visnapuu authored more than 30 literary publications, including over 20 poetry collections, memoirs, plays, verse novels, poems, books of essays. As a government official, Visnapuu significantly influenced the cultural policy of the Republic of Estonia in the mid- to late 1930s, as well as in the 1940s during the initial occupation. Henrik Visnapuu´s primary contributions to Estonian literature are in the form of his love poetry and patriotic poetry, which have become literary classics.
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Contacts:
In USA:
Sirje Kiin, email: sirjekiin@hotmail.com
tel: +1 605 270 1391
Estonian American National Council: www.estosite.org; erku@estosite.org
