From 1990 to 1991, he was the head of the information department in the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from 1992 to 1999, he served as the president of PEN Estonia. From 1997 to 2005, Mutt headed the cultural journal Sirp. He has been the editor-in chief of Estonia's foremost literary magazine, Looming, since 2005. He is the author of seven novels, five short story collections, six volumes of essays, and six volumes of memoirs. He received the annual Tuglas Prize for the best short story in 1981 and 2007, and he has received the Virumaa Literature Prize for the best historical novel twice, as well: in 1994 for Rahvusvaheline mees (The International Man) and in 2013 for Kooparahvas läheb ajalukku (Cavemen’s Chronicles). He has also translated plays by Tom Stoppard, Eugene O’Neill, and Neil Simon, among others.