Katrin Väli
Katrin Väli (real name Katrin Hallas, b. 11 April 1956) is an Estonian poet, editor and translator.
Katrin Väli was born in Tallinn, in the family of translator Silvi and writer Heino Väli. From 1963–1974, she studied at Tallinn Secondary Schools No. 24, 44, 32 and 20 and from 1978–1984 at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. From 1974–1976 she worked as an accountant at the publishing house of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, from 1984–1986 as a seamstress at a textile haberdashery factory in Tallinn, in 1988 as a teacher of Estonian language and literature at Nissi school, and since 1994 she has been working as the language editor of the Eesti Ekspress newspaper. In 1977–1984 she was a member of the Young Authors’ Association of the Estonian Writers’ Union. She is married to translator and editor Jaakko Hallas.
Her first poem was published in the magazine Noorus in 1973. Katrin Väli as a poet has been called original and sovereign and her creation elusive.
She also acts as a freelance translator and editor. She has translated belles-lettres, mostly poetry but also Yevgeni Kiselev and Mikhail Kasyanov’s book Putinita (‘Without Putin’) and the works of the Estonian-Russian authors P. I. Filimonov and Igor Kotjuh. She has written comments and prefaces to her colleagues’ collections and compiled a collection of children’s stories written by his father Heino Väli.
M. K. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Poems
Eluase. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1978, 52 lk.
Vahemaad. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1982, 72 lk.
Risttee. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1988, 96 lk.
Uneskõndija. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1990, 112 lk.
Vesikiri. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1991, 72 lk.
Lained ja punktid. Tallinn: FC Boheem, 1996, 77 lk.
Taim kasvab kell käib. Tartu: Elmatar, 1999, 45 lk.
Ilmad. Tallinn: Tuum, 2002, 64 lk.
neli. Tallinn: Verb, 2007, 69 lk.
ktrn. Tallinn: Kite, 2013, 66 lk.
Katrin Väli, P. I. Filimonov, Tselluloos. Tallinn: Kite, 2015, 204 lk.
Sugulane. Tallinn: EKSA, 2018, 61 lk.
Katrin Väli, Laura Põld, Aheraine laul. Tartu: Tartu Kunstnike Liit, 2020, 192 lk.
Kasvab tagasi lindudeks. (Luuletusi 1978–2021.) Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2021, 296 lk.
