Estonian Jaan Kaplinski wins European Prize for Literature

Estonian poet, philosopher and culture critic Jaan Kaplinski has won the European Prize for Literature.

Born in Tartu, Estonia, in 1941, Kaplinski has published numerous collections of poems, prose and essays in Estonian, Finnish and English. His work has been translated into many different languages, including Norwegian, Swedish, Latvian, Russian and Czech.

Kaplinski is the 11th Laureate of the European Prize for Literature (Prix Européen de Littérature), a European-wide literary award that honours a European writer for the entire body of their work.

“It is by putting a face on each European country, that of its most famous contemporary writer, that our countries will best be able to respect, and to understand each other,” the competition organisers stated, elaborating on the aim of the competition to foster mutual understanding between the peoples of Europe.

Other new east winners of the prize include Tadeusz Różewicz of Poland in 2007, Drago Jančar of Slovenia in 2011 and Vladimir Makanin of Russia in 2012.

Source: ERR