Carolina Pihelgas is a writer, translator, and editor. She has published six volumes of poetry, most recently a collection of prose poems titled Valgus kivi sees (“The Light Within the Stone,” 2019) which received the Cultural Endowment Award for best poetry book of the year. Her poetry is dense and metaphorical, dealing often with themes of memory, nostalgia for lost worlds, and mythology.

She is editor-in-chief of the literary journal Värske Rõhk, which is focused on young authors. She has translated the poetry of Constantine Cavafy, Sappho, Tor Ulven, Pablo Neruda, and many others. Her own poetry has been translated into fifteen languages, and she has been featured in anthologies in Estonia and abroad. She is Tartu City Writer Laureate in 2020.