Snow Drifts, I Sing: Selected Poems

About Juhan Liiv

Since the 1930s Juhan Liiv (1864-1913) has been recognized in Estonia as the epitome of its indigenous poetic genius yet until very recently his work was almost unknown outside the Estonian language. Liiv came from a poor peasant family and never crossed a university's threshold. During short periods he worked as a journalist in Tallinn Viljandi and Tartu but he always did so reluctantly. In 1892 having decided to dedicate himself fully to literary creation he left the newspaper Olevik in Tartu becoming in the impoverished conditions of his country its first professional writer in the sense that he tried to earn his living exclusively by his writing. In 1893 Liiv fell mentally ill suffering (from then until his death) nervous attacks and persecution mania. He died in December 1913 having contracted pneumonia after conductors (because he was destitute and could not afford a ticket) pushed him off the Tartu-Valga train into a marsh. Born in 1945 in Parnu Estonia Juri Talvet exemplifies the international public intellectual. His poetry and essays have been translated into numerous languages. In 1997 he was awarded Estonia's highest poetry honor the Juhan Liiv Prize and in 2009 he was invited to be one of the 54 poets to compose 'The European Constitution in Verse.' H. L. Hix is an author a poet and the former director of the creative-writing MFA program at the University of Wyoming. In 2006 he was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. He lives in Laramie Wyoming.