The Emma Press publishes first collection of Estonian eco-poetry
The Emma Press has just launched Vivarium, a poetry pamphlet by Maarja Pärtna, translated from Estonian by Jayde Will.
Vivarium contains a selection of poems from Vivaarium, published by Elusamus in 2019. Vivarium was the first collection of poems about climate change to be published in Estonia, with Pärtna addressing topics of major environmental changes, loss of biodiversity and global warming by aligning them with themes of national trauma, examining the impact of Soviet rule on Estonian society.
The pamphlet was launched at Verve Poetry Festival at the Birmingham Hippodrome on 20th February 2020.
Vivarium is the 21st in the Emma Press Poetry Pamphlets series, and has been supported with a grant from the Traducta programme of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Vivarium is a collection of poems about connection and alienation, belonging and place. Pärtna explores the uneasy co-existence of the past and the present, on a national and global scale, and looks ahead to the future with anxiety as well as hope.
Publisher Emma Dai’an Wright said: “Vivarium is a timely collection of powerful poems, which take on huge, global topics effectively by focussing on tiny details and the personal.”
Vivarium
ISBN 978-1-912915-42-2
36 pages / 198 × 129 × 3 mm / 20 February 2020 / £6.50
About the author:
Maarja Pärtna (1986) is an Estonian poet, editor and translator with four poetry collections: At the Grassroots (2010), which was shortlisted for the Betti Alver Debut Award, Thresholds and Pillars (2013), [becoming] (2015) and Vivarium (2019). She has won the Juhan Liiv Poetry Award and is the co-founder of the poetry press Elusamus. Her poems, which have been translated into eight languages, weave connections between the human and non-human worlds and address issues of identity and belonging.
About The Emma Press:
The Emma Press is an award-winning independent publishing house based in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. It was founded in 2012 by Emma Dai’an Wright and is dedicated to producing beautiful, thought-provoking books for adults and children, and to making poetry accessible to everyone. The Emma Press publishes themed anthologies, illustrated chapbooks and children’s poetry and fiction, with a growing list of translations which includes titles from Latvia, Estonia, Indonesia, Spain and the Netherlands.
The Emma Press recently received funding from Arts Council England‘s Elevate programme, developed to enhance the diversity of the arts and cultural sector by strengthening the resilience of diverse-led organisations.
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