Priit Kruus

Priit Kruus (3 December 1981 – 25 November 2018) was a researcher of Estonian literature, literature teacher, compiler of textbooks and prose writer.

Kruus completed Saue gymnasium in 2000. He was among the members of the literary grouping TNT (Tallinna Noored Tegijad — Young Doers of Tallinn) and one of the founders of the literary grouping !Peatus. From 2000, he studied social sciences, Estonian language and literature and Finnish philology at the University of Tartu. In 2007, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu, majoring in literature and folklore and in 2018 defended his PhD thesis Vaikne avangard. Eesti noorkirjanike rühmituste laine ja uue meedia kooslused: Erakkonnast ZA/UM-ini (‘The Silent Avant-Garde. The Wave of Groups of Young Estonian Authors and Groups of the New Media: from Erakkond to ZA/UM’) at Tallinn University. Kruus worked as a teacher of Estonian at Tallinn Old Town Educational College and as a lecturer at Tallinn Pedagogical Seminary. From 2014, he was a lecturer in Estonian literature and didactics of literature at Tallinn University and from 2015 also a didactician at the Centre for Innovation in Education at Tallinn University.

In 2002, Kruus published the book Ring ümber teiste (‘A Circle Around the Others’). The main theme of the story collection is the power of everyday routine over people. Kruus has also written a series of textbooks of literature for basic schools. He published articles as a literary critic and reporter and worked as a news editor for the Estonian Radio.

Kruus edited the quarterly Vihik of the Estonian Literary Society. In 2005, he founded the literary youth journal Värske Rõhk and was its editor-in-chief for the first two years.

L. P. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Short prose
Mia Leite, Priit Kruus, Hedda Maurer, Koopia. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2002. 255 lk.
Ring ümber teiste. Tartu: !peatus, 2002. 76 lk.