Baltic Belles: The Dedalus Book of Estonian Women’s Literature

This anthology presents readers with a broad selection of fiction written between the late nineteenth century and today. The collection opens with the early realist Elisabeth Aspe, who described both village life and urban fear during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Early twentieth-century works by female writers often discuss the young creative individual’s encounters in the transformed urbanised world, some of the most outstanding examples of which are by the great Betti Alver. After World War II, Estonian writing bore the unmistakable signs of Soviet censorship. Nevertheless, Viivi Luik’s momentous novel The Seventh Spring of Peace managed to avoid suppression, and the wonderfully unique Asta Poldmae seized her opportunity to write. Very strong authors like Eeva Park, Maarja Kangro, and Maimu Berg flourished with the return of freedom of expression in the late twentieth century, and continue to do so today. They represent the best of Estonian short-story writing, handling social topics very sharply and suggestively and scrutinising the country’s soul in a highly personal manner. AUTHOR: Elle-Mari Talivee was born in Tallinn in 1974. She is a scholar, critic and writer. She divides her time between her posts as a project manager at the Estonian Literature Centre and as a researcher at the Museum Department of the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre.