Triinu Meres

Triinu Meres (born 20 January 1980) is a science-fiction and fantasy writer, poet and editor.
 
Meres has studied at Gustav Adolf Grammar School in Tallinn, semiotics at the University of Tartu and nursing at Tallinn Health Care College. Since 2014, she has been working as editor of the science fiction magazine Algernon. She is a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union.

In 2009, Triinu Meres published the poetry collection Lagunemine (‘Decomposition’), which was favourably met by critics. Triinu Meres writes both rhyming poetry and free verse. The noticeable features of the young author’s sensitive poetry were maturity, irony and self-irony.

In 2011, Meres won the competition for science-fiction stories arranged by the Estonian Science Fiction Association with her story Joosta oma varju eest (‘Run Away from Your Shadow’). Her short stories have been published in several collections of science-fiction. Meres’ manuscript of the novel Lihtsad valikud (‘Simple Choices’) shared the second place at the novel competition of the Estonian Writers’ Union. The book was published at the end of the same year and was nominated for the Estonian Literature Endowment Annual Award. The action of the novel takes place on a socially highly stratified planet, but the emphasis is on the complicated maze of relations between the characters and their Shakespearean games of power.

In 2018, Meres published her second novel Kuningate tagasitulek (‘The Return of Kings’). The action of the book takes place in a dystopic future world which, compared to the first novel, includes more adventures and mystery (which surrounds the Kings mentioned in the title of the novel), but again, the novel is characterised by social divides and complicated human relations and choices in life.

In 2019, Varrak publishers issued Triinu Meres’ collection of stories Kuigi sa proovid olla hea (‘Although You’re Trying to Be Good’). The book includes the eponymous short novel and two other science-fiction stories, all of which deal with people’s difficult choices. Like in Meres’ earlier creation, the stories deal with the issues of good and evil. In addition to them, Meres has published about a dozen science-fiction stories in magazines and anthologies.

Meres has edited translations of the world’s adventure literature classics and science-fiction books.

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

Books in Estonian

Novels
Lihtsad valikud. Tallinn: Varrak, 2017. 271 lk.
Kuningate tagasitulek. Tartu: Fantaasia, 2018. 395 lk.

Short prose
Kuigi sa proovid olla hea. Tallinn: Varrak, 2019. 246 lk.

Poetry
Lagunemine. Tartu: Hermes, 2009. 62 lk.