Janar Ala

Short stories

Janar Ala (born 8 May 1979) is a writer, journalist and critic of popular culture.

He studied semiotics and journalism at the University of Tartu. He has worked as a journalist for different publications and as a freelancer. For a longer time, he has worked as a culture journalist for the Postimees newspaper. In 2014, Ala published a book of short prose, Ekraanirituaalid, on the title page Ekraanitseremooniad (‘Screen Rituals’, or ‘Screen Ceremonies’). The book is based on Facebook posts. Janar Ala has said that it could be called a book of miniatures. The book contains short and sometimes comical stories, most of which were originally written for Facebook and have been somewhat adapted for the book.

In 2018, Ala published the collection Oma rahva lood (‘Stories of Our Own People’) which contains published and unpublished stories from 2013–2018. The book consists of shorter and somewhat longer causeries which deal with well-known evergreen topics. An essential place belongs to country life – the stories of so-called simple people and their voices. Janar Ala tells stories about the homely village of Luua and the people of his homeplace.

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

Books in Estonian

Short prose
Ekraanitseremooniad. Saarde; Pärnu: Jumalikud Ilmutused, 2014, 115 lk.
Oma rahva lood. Tallinn: J. Ala, 2018, 172 lk.