Expect the Unexpected
Review of the Estonian language paperback published August 2018 by Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library)

A poetry and prose writer whose works have been awarded the Juhan Liiv and Gustav Suits Poetry Prizes and the Friedebert Tuglas Short Story Prize.
In the short and very short stories of this collection, everyday life and mythology, humour and spleen, the absurd and the sublime meet in the seemingly easy-going, but always unpredictable, style of Kolk. - translation of the Estonian language synopsis for "Esimene malbe päev sel aastal" (The First Modest Day of the Year).

One of my great pleasures of last year's reading life was the inaugural edition of the annual Estonian Short Story anthology series "Eesti novell 2018". Being a foreign born Estonian reader with limited access to new book releases from that motherland market it is often difficult to judge from a distance which current authors and books to read. "Eesti novell" provided a one-stop-shopping method to investigate 15 or so writers, most of whom were entirely new names to me.

Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library) is a modestly priced one-time literary weekly paperback (from 1957 to 1994) which now publishes 40 issues a year as of 1995. It also is a great source for discovery is its relatively cheap prices (currently 3 to 5€ per issue) allow for access to a multitude of international writers in Estonian translation and of shorter works by Estonians themselves. These include poetry, theatre, essays, short stories, novellas and novels (the lengthier works are usually parcelled out over several issues).

Review draft in progress, to be continued

Trivia and Links
For a complete listing of all works issued to date by Loomingu Raamatukogu see Estonian Wikipedia at: https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loomingu_Raamatukogus_ilmunud_teoste_loend_aastak%... ( )