Kaupo Meiel
Kaupo Meiel (born 28 September 1975) is a writer and journalist.
Meiel was born Pärnu. He attended school in Pärnu and studied Estonian language and literature at the University of Tartu. Meiel has worked for the newspapers Pärnu Postimees and Postimees, Postimees Publisher and Estonian Public Broadcasting. Hei is a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union from 2008. He has received the Kultuuripärl (Cultural Pearl) Award and the Order of the White Star, class V (2016).
His debut collection of poetry Polügrafisti käsiraamat (‘Typographer’s Handbook’, 2006) stands out with its puns which mostly circle around different aspects of the arts of lettering and typography. Meiel’s characteristic witty and cheery calembouric games on words and language occupy the central place in the collections Eesti elulood (‘Estonian Biographies’, 2008) and Lühistu koosolek (‘Meeting of a Short Circuit Society’, 2017). Topical spirituality is expressed in the poetry collection Mu sokid on terved (‘My Socks are Whole’, 2010), which reflects the economic crisis, the flood in Pärnu, everyday life and Jesus who has been settled into the present time.
On Estonian Television, Meiel has been the editor and consultant of Kirjandusministeerium (‘Ministry of Literature’) and the scriptwriter of the satirical programme Ongi Koik (‘That’s All’). He has presented comments of the day on the Vikerraadio channel. During Sunset Festivals at Kabli, Meiel has organised Cosmonautic Literary Evenings at Kosmonautika Holiday Centre, a former holiday home for Soviet cosmonauts on the Baltic seashore in Pärnu County. Meiel’s literary criticism, essays and columns have been collected into the book Turg on jumal (‘Market Is God’, 2014).
A. K. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Poetry collections
Polügrafisti käsiraamat. Pärnu: Jumalikud Ilmutused, 2006, 70 lk
Eesti elulood. Pärnu: Jumalikud Ilmutused, 2008, 129 lk
Mu sokid on terved: langusaja luulet räämast ja kogu riigist. Pärnu: Jumalikud Ilmutused, 2010, 88 lk
Pursata Vesuuvile: ajaluulet ja autori märkusi. Saarde, Pärnu: Jumalikud Ilmutused, 2013, 105 lk
Lühistu koosolek. Tallinn: Post Factum, 2017, 157 lk
Essays and articles
Turg on jumal: esseed ja kriitika. Pärnu: Jumalikud Ilmutused, 2014, 147 lk