K. S. Kalev is an Estonian-born author residing in England.  

Born in Estonia at the tail end of the soviet occupation, K. S. Kalev grew up surrounded by an abundance of energy and optimism brought on by the restoration of the country’s independence. 

This stood in sharp contrast to the stories told by her parents, grandparents and history teachers about life behind the Iron Curtain. Some were heart breaking, others infuriating while many were amusing, life affirming and spoke of the resilience of her people. 

At school she wrote children’s stories and while at university she contributed to journals and magazines. In 2007, shortly after graduating with a degree in Critical Art Theory, she moved from Tallinn to London, thinking: ‘Why not!’. 

The big city offered buckets of joy and wild adventures, introduced her to colourful people and outrageous characters, and to balance things out, presented many painful disappointments. Now, nearly two decades later, living in an old, secluded farmhouse in Devon, she is harnessing all that she has seen and experienced, heard and thought about, in her writing. 

Offering a unique viewpoint as someone from the former Eastern Bloc in the West - being both an outsider and insider, and seen simultaneously to be an immigrant and an expat - K. S. explores themes like cultural identity, nostalgia, and belonging, while weaving contemporary history, political events and cultural shifts into her fiction. 

While her own varied life experience defines her personal philosophies, she aims to never pigeonhole her characters, drawing on the fundamentals of human nature, borderless at its heart, instead. 

In her work, K. S. Kalev blends literary fiction, historical fiction and magical realism and she writes both in short and long form.