Leelo Tungal (1947) is one of the most popular and awarded writer both the children and adults in Estonia. She has written approximately 90 books and a great deal of song lyrics during the last five decades. Her books highly appriciated for the brilliant rhythm and rimes encourage the readers to see the bright side of the life. Last year she published two collections: The poetry book for children called “Halloo!” (Tammerraamat) port...

Heli Laaksonen (1972) has, ever since her first collection, “Pulu uis” (‘Pigeon swimming’, Sammakko, 2000), been Finland’s most loved and best-selling poet. Her five collections written in the Southwest Finnish dialect have achieved sales figures that are astonishing in the Finnish context, over 200 000 collections and audio books. Laaksonen is a fantastic performer and many of her shows are sold out. She writes ab...

KĀRLIS VĒRDIŅŠ (born 1979) is a Latvian poet, critic and translator. He has graduated in cultural theory from the Latvian Academy of Culture and he has PhD in Literature from the University of Latvia. Vērdiņš works at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia in Riga. He is also a member of the editorial team of the literary magazine Latvju teksti (Text of Latvia). His book reviews and essays regula...

JAN KAUS (born 1971) is an Estonian poet, prosaist, esseist, translater and literary critic. He has writen 13 books and translated five novels from Finnish into Estonian, for example Sofi Oksanen's novel Purge. Kaus' own poetry has been translated into Finnish, Russian and Swedish. This year he has published two books – Tallinna kaart (The map of Tallinn), a collection of miniature stories devoted to Kaus' longtime hometown Tallinn and a no...