Ivo Iliste

Poems

Ivo-Ago Iliste (before Estonianisation of the surname Illisson, 14 December 1935 – 1 December 2002) was a journalist, translator and poet.

Iliste was born in Tartu as the son of a doctor. He left Estonia with his family at the age of eight fleeing from the Soviet occupation. In 1963, he obtained a master’s degree at Stockholm University. Iliste became particularly interested in the matters of developing countries. He worked in Africa, Latin America and India, participating in the arrangement of preparatory courses and training for developing countries. He was a popular ethnology lecturer in Sweden.

Estonian culture in the narrower and broader sense, from figurative language of literature to political trends, occupied the central place for Iliste. This dedication led him to the creation of the journal Mana and becoming its co-editor. In 1957–1964, Iliste worked in the editorial office of Mana (being a member of its editorial board until 1988) and in 1959–1963 in the editorial office of the journal Vaba Eesti. From 1991–1996, he was the editor of the journal Baltisk Revy and from 1986–1996, director of the Baltic Institute in Stockholm.

In 1975, Ivo Iliste published a collection of poems in Swedish called Lergods (‘Pottery’). In cooperation with O. Abrahamsen, he compiled an anthology of Estonian poetry in Norwegian, which was published in 1989. Together with his wife Birgitta Göranson, Iliste translated works of Estonian writers into Swedish (Jaan Kaplinski, Jaan Kross, Viivi Luik, Doris Kareva, Paul-Eerik Rummo, Ilmar Talve, Arved Viirlaid, Vladimir Beekman).

Ivo Iliste was a member of the Swedish Writers’ Union from 1971 and of the Estonian Writers’ Union from 1993.

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

Books in Swedish

Poetry
Lergods. Stockholm: Bo Cavefors, 1975. 68 lk.

Non-fiction
Baltikum: vardagsliv och politik i sydöstra Norden. Stockholm: Utbildningsförlaget Brevskolan, 1992. 206 lk.