Herta Laipaik

Although she did not earn a doctoral diploma, the medical training that she had received allowed her to work as a nurse and support her family; her father had been killed by the Russian army.

In 1940s Herta Laipaik started her literary career, writing articles and short stories for several large Estonian newspapers ("Postimees," "Eesti Sõna," "Õhtuleht").

They settled in a small town Karksi-Nuia, where Dr. Kornev worked as a family doctor and Herta Laipaik wrote articles and stories for local newspapers, at the same time raising their second daughter Riina, who was born in 1958.

In 1964, the family moved to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, where Herta Laipaik continued to write short stories, radio plays and children's literature.

During her long literary career Herta Laipaik wrote books in many different genres: fantasy, including folk horror, detectives, short stories, plays, etc.

[4] Another author, Estonian fantastic fiction specialist and a creator of several anthologies Raul Sulbi considers Laipaik to be the founder of ethno-horror in Estonia.

In addition to the above-mentioned books, she wrote the novels Fear (Pelg, 1993), Dog-Faced Monster (Koerakoonlane, 1993), Pearls Die Slowly (Pärlid surevad pikkamisi, 1993), The Path of a Black Opal (Musta Opaali Rada, 1996), Jester of his Own House (Oma koja narr, 1998) and An Ode to a Sequin Evening Gown (Ood litrilisele õhtukleidile, 1999).

Herta Laipaik's last book was a memoir from World War II, Wind Chimes (Tuulekellad, 2000), for what she was given a prestigious Tammsaare Novel Award.