Estlitfest: Endlessly Curious
(This is a past event and is no longer running)
In conversation: Endlessly Curious – Rein Raud and Tony White chaired by Bhavit Mehta
With an inquisitive mind and sophisticated style, Rein Raud is versatility personified: he has written poetry, plays, short stories, and novels. One of Estonia’s best-known writers and an influential opinion leader, Raud will be in conversation with the formally adventurous and equally curious British novelist, writer and editor Tony White, whose latest novel, The Fountain in the Forest, has just been published to much acclaim.
Rein Raud was born in 1961 and since 1974 has published plays, short stories, novels and a collection of poetry. He is also a widely published scholar of cultural theory as well as literature and philosophy of both modern and pre-modern Japan. He has an impressive command of foreign languages and a breadth of cultural knowledge. He was the first Rector of Tallinn University. Three of his novels have recently been translated into English: The Death of the Perfect Sentence, The Reconstruction and The Brother.
Tony White is the author of novels including The Fountain in the Forest (Faber and Faber, 2018), and Foxy-T (Faber and Faber, 2003). He is chair of the board of directors of London’s award-winning arts radio station Resonance 104.4fm. White’s new novel The Fountain in the Forest is published by Faber and Faber in January 2018. His recent novella Zombies Ate My Library (Blast Theory) has been shortlisted in the ‘best novella’ category of the Saboteur Awards 2017.
Bhavit Mehta has worked as a publisher, translator and festival director. He studied Biological Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London, and worked in a research environment at University College London before entering the world of children’s books in 2009. Between 2010 and 2014 Bhavit co-directed the South Asian Literature Festival. He has worked closely with a number of literary organisation, mainly on translation and creative writing projects, and is currently on the board of Trustees for Wasafiri Magazine for international contemporary writing. Bhavit has worked with UK and international writers and collaborated with literature partners whilst working for the British Council, Commonwealth Foundation and, most currently, with Pop Up Projects. He has a personal interest in stories from around the world and their impact on cultural relations.