Eeva Park (b. 1950) is an Estonian prose writer and poet. Against the backdrop of the current prominence of women’s writing, it bears reminding that Park addressed violence against women in her prose already several decades ago – including in the short story Chance (Juhus), published in Looming and awarded the Friedebert Tuglas Short Story Prize in 1994, and in the novel A Trap in Infinity (Lõks lõpmatuses), which received the Eduard Vilde Literary Prize in 2004. Of course, the precarious social position of women is not the only defining feature of Park’s prose; rather, it forms part of a broader sensibility attuned to injustice. Park is also a remarkable poet: her debut collection Bitter Wind (Mõrkjas tuul) appeared in 1983, and last year saw the publication of her sixth collection, Hundirattas, which offers a fine overview of the breadth of her poetry and her ability to observe a wide array of beings and situations in the surrounding world – people, animals and plants alike. At the same time, it is a deeply personal work, with confessional undertones that reflect on the fragility and resilience of her own existence.
Eeva Park
