LATVIA

Kārlis Vērdiņš (1979-)

Karlis Verdins was born 1979 in Riga, and is best known his work as a literary critic and poet. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Verdins grew up in Jelgava and studied Cultural Theory at the Latvian Academy of Culture, receiving both his B.A. and M.A. there. He received his Ph.D. in Philology from the University of Latvia in 2009 and has gone on to work for the Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art at the University of Latvia.

Verdins has authored many academic papers and essays on literature, both in Latvian and other languages, and has published four volumes of poetry: Ledlauži (Icebreakers), Biezpiens ar krējumu (Cottage Cheese with Sour Cream),"Es" (I) and Pieaugušie (Adults). He has also published a children’s book, Burtinu zupa (Alphabet Soup).

Verdins has also written librettos and song lyrics for several composers, as well as published translations of various major uthors such as Emily Dickinson, Lev Rubinstein, and Walt Whitman. His own poetry has been translated into several languages: “Titry” (translated by Semen Khanin in Russian), “Niosłem ci kanapeczkę” (translated by Jacek Dehnel into Polish), "Já" (translated by Pavel Štoll into Czech), and “Come to Me” (translated by Ieva Lešinska into English).

Pisa University Press published his monograph The Social and Political Dimensions of the Latvian Prose Poem in 2010. Verdins has received several awards from the annual poetry festival in Latvia, the newspaper Diena, and the annual Literature Prize for his work.

Learn more: https://latvianliterature.lv/en/writers/17

Amanda Aizpuriete (1956-)

Amanda Aizpuriete was born 1956 in Jūrmala, and is best known for her work as a poet and translator. Aizpuriete’s style of poetry is described as “mystical," and she often writes about places she’s never been and lives she hasn't lived. During her childhood in Jūrmala, her family was entitled to military housing and she has remained in her hometown her whole life, with her children attending the same school that she did as a child.

Aizpuriete studied philosophy and philology at the University of Latvia, then furthered her studies for two years at the M. Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. She began work as a radio journalist following her studies. Aizpuriete has published seven collections of poetry from when Latvia was still under Soviet rule to the present: Mother Will Come Into the Garden (1980), Dune Street (1986), The Next Bus (1990), The Last Summer (1995), The Outskirts of Babel (1999), A Flock of Rosy Pigeons (1999), and The Dispatch Wind (2004).

Aizpuriete’s work has been translated into at least fourteen different languages and has inspired numerous other works, for example Eric Funk’s "Symphony for Contralto and Orchestra," This Eventide Seems Spoiled, which was inspired by her poetry. She has also won numerous awards for her work, including the Horst Bienek Poetry Prize from the Bavaria Academy of Art in 1999, the Poetry Days Prize in 2000, and the Annual Prize in Literature for best poetry translation in 2003. She has also translated works by several authors including Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and Joseph Brodsky.

Learn more: https://www.universeofpoetry.org/latvia_p2.shtml

Ingmāra Balode (1981-)

Ingmāra Balode was born 1981 in Auce, Latvia and is best known for her work as a poet and translator. She did her studies at the Riga College for Applied Art and the Latvian Academy of Culture.

Balode's career began in the mid 1990s when her articles, stories, and poems first started circulating through the Latvian cultural press. She published her first volume of poetry, Ledenes, ar kurām var sagriezt mēli (Hard Candy that Can Cut Your Tongue), which earned her the Annual Latvian Literature Award for her debut. Additionally, her work in poetry has been translated into several languages including Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian, English, and Czech.

Balode’s work in translation is mostly in fiction from English and Polish, along with translations of poetry in Russian, Slovakian, and Czech. Some of her translations include Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną (Snow White and Russian Red) by Polish author Dorota Masłowska, Zdążyć przed Panem Bogiem (Shielding the Flame) by Hanna Krall, and Książka (The Book) by Mikołaj Łoziński. Additionally, her translations of poetry by Adam Zagajewski and E. E. Cummings have earned her numerous appearances in the cultural press.

Balode received the Prize for Poetry Translation in 2010 from the literary magazine Latvju Teksti (Latvian Writings) for her translation of selected poems by Adam Zadajewski and compiling them into the book Svešā skaistumā (In the Alien Beauty). She also received the Annual Latvian Literature Award in 2012 after publishing her second collection of poetry.

Learn more: https://www.latvianliterature.lv/en/writers/24