Lilli Luuk

Lilli Luuk (real name Kristina Tamm, born Kristina Valdru, 1976) is an art historian and writer.

She was born in Paide in the family of a sports coach and completed Paide Gymnasium in 1994. Luuk studied history at the University of Tartu and acquired a master’s degree in art history there in 2010. Lilli Luuk has worked at Tartu Higher Art School Pallas as a lecturer in philosophy and art history. She has displayed her artwork at exhibitions. From 2021, she has been a freelance writer. Her cousin is writer Erkki Luuk.

Lilli Luuk made her debut in the journal Looming in 2017 and received the Friedebert Tuglas Short Story Award for the short story Auk (‘Hole’). In 2020, she received the same prize for the short story Kolhoosi miss (‘Collective Farm Miss’). The action of her stories is often set in the 1980s and 1990s, the time of a social breakthrough in Estonia. The depiction of life in those times mostly seems sad and insecure.

In 2022, Luuk’s first novel Minu venna keha (‘My Brother’s Body’) came third in the competition of historical novels of the Hea Lugu publishing company. In 2023, she received the Annual Award of the journal Looming for her short story Mäed (‘Hills’). Lilli Luuk is among the writers who receive the writer’s salary in 2023–2025.

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

Books in Estonian

Novels
Minu venna keha. Tallinn: Hea Lugu, 2022. 182 lk.

Lühiproosa
Kolhoosi miss. Äksi: Saadjärve kunstikeskus, 2022. 166 lk.