Madli Morell

Poems

About Madli Morell

Madli Morell (real name Maarja Undusk, née Maarja Kross, born 13 August 1959) is an artist and poet.

Undusk was born and attended school in Tallinn, graduated from the Estonian State Art Institute majoring in leather art, and studied art criticism and literature at the University of Tartu. She has worked at the Library of the Academy of Sciences and the Estonian National Library. Undusk has been a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union since 2022. Her parents were writers Jaan Kross (1920–2007) and Ellen Niit (1928–2016), her brother writer Märten Kross (born 1970), and her husband writer and literary scholar Academician Jaan Undusk (born 1958).

Maarja Undusk has published short prose and poems in the press since the end of the 1970s. Her first poetry collection Tõsimäng (‘Serious Game’) came out in 1983, the second poetry collection Muriaad (‘Myriad’) in 2020. In 2022, she published the monograph Ellen Niit: heleda mõtte laast (‘Ellen Niit: A Shard of Bright Thought’) where subjective and objective subject matter was skilfully interwoven. In 2023, the Society of Tammsaare and Vilde’s Friends awarded her the Friend of the Classic title for the book. Undusk has also compiled the selection of Ellen Niit’s poetry Aastatel on tiivad: valik luulet 1944-2006 (‘Years have Wings: a Selection of Poetry from 1944-2006’, 2019), the compendium Jaan Kross ja Tallinn (‘Jaan Kross and Tallinn’, 2020) and written a book primarily meant for children, Päkapikk Ingo: valitud kohti kirjavahetusest tema sõpradega aastail 1991–2009 (‘Dwarf Ingo: Selected Passages from Correspondence with his Friends in 1991–2009’, 2009).

A. K. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Poetry collections
Madli Morell, Tõsimäng. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1983, 68 lk.
Madli Morell, Muriaad. Tallinn: Tammerraamat, 2020, 31 lk.

Children’s books
Päkapikk Ingo. Valitud kohti kirjavahetusest tema sõpradega aastail 1991-2009. Koostanud Maarja Undusk, kujundaja Einike Soosaar, fotod: Maarja Undusk. Tallinn: Menu Kirjastus, 2009, 207 lk.

Monographs
Maarja Undusk, Ellen Niit: heleda mõtte laast. Tallinn: Tammerraamat, 2022, 632 lk