Maarja Vaino (née Maarja Helme; born April 24, 1976) is an Estonian literary scholar. Since 2017, she has been the director of the .
Early life and education.
Maarja Vaino was born in Tallinn, Estonia, the daughter of the art historian Sirje Helme and the politician Mart Helme.
Vaino graduated from Tallinn Pedagogical University with a bachelor's degree in Estonian philology, and she defended her dissertation cum laude in Estonian literary and cultural studies at Tallinn University in 2011; her dissertation title was "Irratsionaalsuse poeetika A. H. Tammsaare loomingus" (The Poetics of Irrationalism in the Work of A. H. Tammsaare, supervised by Rein Veidemann). The dissertation received the main prize across disciplines and levels in the National Student Research Paper Competition, and it was selected as the best dissertation of 2012 in the humanities dissertation category in the Tallinn University Student Research Paper Competition. An expanded version of the dissertation intended for a broader audience was published as the book "Tammsaare irratsionaalsuse poeetika" (Tammsaare's Poetics of Irrationalism).
Career.
Vaino was the director of the from 2005 to 2016. Since 2017, she has been the director of the . Since 2015, Vaino has contributed as a columnist for the newspaper "Postimees" and as one of the authors of the daily commentaries on Vikerraadio.
From 2016 to 2020, she hosted the cultural program "Vasar" (Hammer) on Vikerraadio (until the end of 2018 with Peeter Helme), and from the fall of 2020 to March 2024 she was one of the hosts of the program "Loetud ja kiristeet". From 2022 to 2024, she was one of the hosts of the ETV2 program "Kultuuristuudio. Arutelu" (Culture Studio: Discussion). In 2019, she published a study of Mati Unt's work: "Mati Undi hämaruse poeetika" (Mati Unt's Poetics of Twilight).
In 2019, Vaino was elected a . She is a member of the Estonian Writers' Union, the chairwoman of the board of the , a member of the literary group , a member of the ICOM International Committee for Literary Museums (ICLM), and a member of the research committee of the Museum Council at the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Family.
Maarja Vaino is the twin sister of the politician Martin Helme and the sister of the translation theorist and translator Triin van Doorslaer. Vaino has two children, and her partner is the literary scholar .