(November 16, 2023) The Estonian American National Council (EANC) in partnership with the Estonian Writers’ Union and the Luunja municipality announces the nominees for the EANC Henrik Visnapuu Literature and Culture Award. The selected winner will be announced in 2024 on the anniversary of Henrik Visnapuu’s birth, January 2.

Estonian version available here

EANC is proud to announce the 2023 nominees (listed in alphabetical order) for the EANC Visnapuu Literature and Culture Award:

Tiina Ann Kirss (for life-time achievement)

Tiina Kirss grew up in the United States of America, and earned her PhD from the University in Michigan, Ann Arbor. Since the restoration of Estonian independence, Tiina Kirss has dedicated herself to researching, teaching, and introducing Estonian literature and heritage both in Estonia and abroad. Kirss has been a professor of Estonian literature and cultural theory at the University of Toronto, Tallinn University, and Tartu University, and currently works as a senior researcher at the Estonian Museum of Literature.

The main areas of Kirss’s varied research work focus on Estonian and comparative literary and cultural history, as well as the study of Estonian biographies. Her work and activities have contributed to the research and integration of Estonian culture in Estonia as well as abroad.

Virve ja Raimo Raag (shared nomination, for life-time achievement)

Virve and Raimo have played an important role in introducing Estonia, and the Estonian language, literature, and culture in Sweden for nearly forty years. Practically all of the Raags’ multifaceted activities have a strong Estonian dimension. Both Raimo and Virve have obtained research degrees at Uppsala University and have continued to work there as lecturers.

Raimo Raag’s research is wide-ranging and includes:  the history of the Estonian language and Finno-Ugric languages, focusing on the oral and written language, vocabulary and grammar of Estonian, the Estonian-Swedish language, cultural relations and language contacts, as well as loanwords, bilingualism, Estonian- Swedes, Swedish-Estonians, and foreign studies.

Virve Raag’s primary field of research is that of the Estonian and Vadja languages, especially the standardization and ideologization of the Estonian language, and the Estonian language of Swedish Estonians. Virve Raag is the editor-in-chief of the comprehensive Swedish-Estonian dictionary (2004).

Jüri Talvet (for life-time achievement)

Talvet is a wide-ranging poet, translator, lecturer, researcher and essayist. He grew up in Estonia, and studied and earned his academic degrees at Tartu University and Leningrad University. He is currently professor emeritus of world literature at the University of Tartu after a lifetime carrier as professor. He has translated several top works of world literature into Estonian, and his poetry has been translated into several languages.

Henrik Visnapuu was one of the more prolific and versatile of Estonian writers. He penned over 30 works, including more than 20 collections of poetry, memoirs, plays, romantic verse, prose, and essays. As a high-level state official, he was instrumental in significantly shaping the cultural policies of the Republic of Estonia in the late 1930s, as well as during the war and occupation years of 1940-1944. Henrik Visnapuu was born on January 2, 1890 in Helme parish. He fled from the Soviet occupation in 1944, first escaping to Germany and later emigrating to the United States in 1949. He died on April 3, 1951 in Long Island, New York at age 61.

Background The Henrik Visnapuu Literary Award was established in the USA in 1952 and was awarded regularly through 2007, at which point the tradition ceased due to the passing of the award’s founders. EANC revived the award in 2022, welcoming the Estonian Writers Union and the Luunja Municipal Government as partners. The award has been renamed as the EANC Henrik Visnapuu Literature and Culture Award. A laureate will be named on Jan 2, anniversary of Visnapuu´s birth, every other year. The field of eligible cultural genres has been expanded.

The Estonian American National Council, founded in the USA in 1952, is a nationally elected representative organization of American Estonians, whose purpose is to represent the interests of American Estonians and to preserve and support the Estonian language and culture. EANC is a registered 501c3, a nonprofit charity organization. Please see the website www.estosite.org

Contact:

Sirje Kiin, ERKÜ Visnapuu Committee Chair: erku@estosite.org , sirjekiin@hotmail.com

Epp Annus, literary scholar and Chair of the Jury

Jürgen Rooste, poet and member of the Jury

Toomas Liivamägi, Director of the Luuja school and member of the Jury