Eda Ahi
Eda Ahi (born 1. II 1990) is a poet, translator and diplomat.
She was born in Tallinn to a bilingual family, where they spoke both Russian and Estonian. Her warm regard of Russian culture is expressed in her work through the many references to Russian classics, although her poetry follows the Estonian poetry tradition. She received her BA in Romance languages in Tallinn University and her MA in Russian culture in the University of Tartu. After her studies, she worked as a diplomat in Ukraine.
Eda Ahi debuted with her poetry collection Maskiball (‘Masquerade’) in 2012 for which she received the Betti Alver Debut Prize the same year. The collection was noteworthy due to its use of classic poetic form. In contrast to the dominating free verse, it employed accentual-syllabic verse and rhymes. In her next collections, she mostly uses free verse but connections to earlier cultural heritage and an older style of poetry (references to Estonian, Russian and Italian literature and culture) are present there as well.
For her poetry collection Sadam (‘Port’) she received the Tallinn University Literary Prize in 2018 and Sõda ja rahutus (‘War and Disorder’) was recognized with the Literature Endowment Annual Award in 2019.
A. Mv. (Translated by A. S.)
Books in Estonian
Poems
Maskiball. Tartu: Värske Rõhk, 2012, 60 lk. [E-raamat: 2012.]
Gravitatsioon. Tallinn: Verb, 2013, 53 lk.
Julgeolek. Tallinn: Verb, 2014, 39 lk.
Sadam. Tallinn: Verb, 2017, 47 lk.
Sõda ja rahutus. Tallinn, Verb, 2018, 45 lk.
