Kaarel B. Väljamäe
Kaarel B. Väljamäe (born 15. VI 1981) is a poet, playwright and a Baptist pastor.
Väljamäe was born in Kohila into a Christian family and grew up in the local Baptist community. He graduated high school as an external student. After relocating to Tallinn, he served as the assistant pastor in Allika congregation. In 2016, he graduated from The Estonian Free Church Theological Seminary. He is one of the founders of the Mosaiik congregation in Tallinn.
Väljamäe’s first poetry collection, written under the pseudonym Bööma, Sent (‘Cent’) was published in 2006. His poems about the coming of age of a young person were the basis of the 2010 monodrama Suur mees juba (‘Already a Grown Man’, stage director Diana Leesalu) by the Tallinn City Theater. Väljamäe published a poetry collection by the same name in 2012, which is a coherent collection of texts focusing on becoming an adult, namely about a young man in identity crisis and his relationships with his parents, grandparents, literature, and death. With co-author Diana Leesalu, Väljamäe published the play Kriipsud uksepiidal (‘Lines on a Doorjamb’) in 2017. The authors of the play describe the coming of age of their generation towards the end of the Soviet period and during the restoration of the independence of Estonia. The sudden abundance of possibilities cast many in identity crisis and caused quick burnout.
In the 2015 poetry collection Kohvi kõrvale (‘To Have with Coffee’), he portrays a person who has overcome an identity crisis with the help of faith; they have made their choice between the discrepancies of the mundane and the eternal, but are not patient enough to await the positive and practical consequences of their choice. Väljamäe writes in prose-like free verse and oftentimes from the first-person point of view.
He won the annual award of the journal Looming for his poetry in 2010 and came in third in the play competition of the Estonian Theatre Agency with his play Angerja teekond (‘The Journey of an Eel’) in 2023.
L. P. (Translated by A. A.)
Books in Estonian
Poems
Bööma, Sent. Tallinn: Huma, 2006, 70 lk.
Suur mees juba. Tallinn: Kite, 2012, 59 lk.
Kohvi kõrvale. Tallinn: Verb, 2015, 63 lk.
Rahuruum. Merivälja: Kriipsukarla, 2022, 187 lk.
Helesinine tahmakuu. Põltsamaa: Seitse Sõlme, 2022, 69 lk.
Haugub, hammustab, tapab! Hingad, hingad, ei hinga…. Tallinn: Kriipsukarla, 2023, 112 lk.
