Nowadays at the International Centre for Translators and Writers we have two residents, who won the scholarships under the “Artist residencies” project – Reet Kudu from Estonia and Birnir Jon Sigurdsson from Iceland. As the residents are working on their projects and participating in other activities, we invite you to meet them as well.
Reet Kudu is a writer, translator and choreographer from Estonia. She presents herself as a representative of an ironically lyrical style. Reet studied journalism at the University of Tartu. After graduating, she worked as a freelance journalist and later worked as an editor of children’s and youth programs on radio. In 1973 Reet founded the dance group „Rütmoplastika“ in Tartu and constantly experimented with theater and dance. From 1984 to 1987 she studied choreography in Moscow. She has directed and created several choreographies for performances, mainly in „VAT“ and „Vanemuine“ theaters in Estonia. Nowadays Reet doesn’t work as a choreographer due to lack of time.
Until today Reet has written and published 13 novels. The first one “Vabadus ja armastus” was published in 1994 and received considerable attention. In 2002 it was translated into Russian. The other popular novel “Täiskuu ja tänavalatern” was translated into German. Among other works, Reet wrote essays and critical articles on various topics, which were also translated into Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and German. Reet herself translates the texts into German and Russian.
In the 1980s Reet started writing didactic stories and tales for children and youth. Now she has already written 9 books for children. Some of them are translated into Russian. The book “Võlusport” (published in 1994) has been translated into Lithuanian (translated by Nijolė Kepenienė, “Let’s Dance, Snow and Water Child”).
Reet Kudu has visited Lithuania before and has participated in various cultural events, such as “Novelės ruduo”, “Spring of Poetry” and others. She actively collaborates with the Lithuanian Writers’ Union (Klaipeda department).
The “Artist Residencies” project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and is part of project “Neringa – Lithuanian capital of culture 2021”.
