Milvi Panga

Milvi Panga (born 22 April 1945) is an Estonian poet and author of poems for children. She writes in Võro, Estonian, and Russian.

Life and career

Milvi Panga was born 22 April 1945 in Oe, Antsla Parish, Võru County. She studied at the schools in Kaika and graduated from high school in Antsla. She graduated from the cooperative school of the Estonian Union of Consumer Cooperatives in Tallinn as a pastry chef. After graduation, she settled in Rapla County. She worked as a cook, fire dispatcher, and nurse. She married in 1966, and had three children.

She began actively writing poetry at the encouragement of her older daughter. Since 1984, the regional newspapers of Rapla, Viljandi and Võru have been publishing her poems. Her mother tongue is Võro, but she writes poems in both dialect and written Estonian. Since 1988, she has been publishing in the children's magazine Täheke (Star).

Milvi Panga's poems have been published in many poetry collections for children, textbooks and anthologies. Her first poetry collection "Pesamunale" was published in 1995.

She won the Karl Eduard Sööt Children's Poetry Award (for poems "Tähekeses", or "In The Star" with illustrations by Hillar Mets, Heldur Laretei and Viive Noor), Hendrik Adamson Dialect Poetry Prize (for the poetry cycle "Läämi kaemi"), and Karl Eduard Sööt Children's Poetry Award ("Mesikäpa esikäpad," or "The Front Paws of the Bee", illustrated by Mare Hunt).

Panga lives with her family near Rapla, Estonia.

Publications

• 1995 "Pesamunale" ("For The Nest Egg")
• 1998 "Jõulust jaani" ("From Christmas to Midsummer")
• 2004 "See, kes lustib" ("The One Who Has Fun")
• 2005 "Läämi kaemi!" (in Võro language)
• 2007 "Läki õue, läkiläki!" ("Go Outside, Go Outside!")
• 2011 "Kus sa oled, päkapikk?" (Where Are You, Elf?)
• 2015 "Linnumajake" ("Birdhouse")
• 2015 "Sooääre summer" ("Swamp buzzer")
• 2017 "Mesikäpa esikäpad" ("The Front Paws of the Bee")
• 2024 "Sadu las laulu" ("Let The Song Be Sung")