Ene Mihkelson (21 October 1944 in

Tammeküla Tammeküla is a village in Järva Parish, Järva County in central Estonia. (retrieved 28 July 2021) Educator, archeologist and historian Jaan Jung (1835–1900) and writer Ene Mihkelson Ene Mihkelson (21 October 1944 in Tammeküla, Imavere ...

, Imavere Parish,

Viljandi County Viljandi County ( et, Viljandi maakond or ''Viljandimaa''; german: Kreis Fellin) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in southern Estonia bordering Pärnu, Järva, Jõgeva, Tartu and Valga counties. History Viljandimaa, under the ...

– 20 September 2017 in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

) was an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

writer. She was a recipient of the

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Sout ...

and the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature.

Education

Mihkelson studied

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

after completing her

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

. She worked as a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

and then as a researcher for the

Estonian Literary Museum The Estonian Literary Museum (ELM; et, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum), is a national research institute of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia. Its mission is to improve the cultural heritage of Estonia, to collect, prese ...

Literature

Mihkelson wrote throughout her life. She published her first literary piece in 1967. However, her first collection of

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

s did not appear until 1978. Her father opposed the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

forces in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in the middle of the 20th century. The authorities, therefore, did not approve of her. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Mihkelson has published ten poetry anthologies. Her poetry lacks meter,

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

and

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

, but contains surprising

inversion Inversion or inversions may refer to: Arts * , a French gay magazine (1924/1925) * ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas * Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory * ...

s. It is known for its intensity,

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

content and

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

topics. Mihkelson has also published four

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s, a selection of critical essays (''Kirjanduse seletusi'', or ''Explanations of Literature'') and a collection of short stories (''Surma sünnipäev'', or ''The Birthday of Death''). IN 2001 she published the novel '' Ahasveeruse uni''. Mihkelson's works frequently include

allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

s to her childhood, spent in hiding,

Estonian mythology Estonian mythology is a complex of myths belonging to the Estonian folk heritage and literary mythology. Information about the pre-Christian and medieval Estonian mythology is scattered in historical chronicles, travellers' accounts and in eccles ...

, and Estonian history. In 2006, she was awarded the

and in 2010, the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihkelson, Ene 1944 births 2017 deaths People from Järva Parish Estonian women poets Estonian women novelists Estonian women short story writers 20th-century Estonian poets 20th-century Estonian novelists 20th-century short story writers 21st-century Estonian poets 21st-century Estonian novelists 21st-century short story writers Herder Prize recipients 21st-century Estonian women writers 20th-century Estonian women writers Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class