J.C. Todd's To Be the Roots
The Butterfly's Apology by Māris Salējs
Statements on poetry by:
Edvīns Raups
Knuts Skujenieks
Photo of Vizma Belševica by Margita Gutmane
Photos of J.C. Todd,Māris Salējs, Kārlis Vērdiņš, by Rebecca Seiferle
All other Latvian poet photos courtesy of the Latvian Writer's Union.
Edited by J.C. Todd and Margita Gailitis
Notes prepared by Jānis Elsbergs, Margita Gailitis, J. C. Todd
Eduards
Aivars (b. 1956) Poet and essayist, he has published
five volumes of poetry. The most recent volume received the Latvian
Poetry Prize (2002). He uses his pen name when publishing poetry, and
his birth name, Aivars Eipurs, for his work as therapist in the
Minnesota program for drug and alcohol counseling.
Amanda
Aizpuriete (b. 1956) Widely published poet and
translator. Since 1980, she has published 8 books of poetry and one
novel in Latvian, with books published in translation in Sweden and
Germany. Her poetry and prose has been published in anthologies in
Scandinavia, the Baltics, Iceland, France, Germany, Russia, Canada and
U.S.A. Eric Funk has composed a symphony with text from her “This
Eventide Seems Spoiled.” She has translated Georg Trakl, Joseph
Brodsky, Virginia Woolf, Ken Kesey and John Updike. She received the
prestigious Horst Bienek Prize from the Bavaria Academy of Art (1999);
the Latvian Poetry Prize (2000) for Bābeles nomalē
(Outskirts of Babel); the Latvian Book Prize (2003) for
translations of Anna Akhmatova. 
Vizma Belševica (b. 1931; d. 2005) has seven volumes of
poetry, and numerous awards in Latvia, including the Ojārs
Vācietis Award (1988), the Order of the Three Stars (1995), and the
Cultural Ministry Award for Life Achievement in Literature (1997). Her
Swedish awards include the Einar Forseth Foundation Award (1992) and
Tomas Transtromer Award (1998). 
Uldis Bērziņš (b.1944) Prolific
translator and poet. His first poems appeared in 1963 but the first of
his six volumes did not appear until the 1980s. His poetry has been
translated into French, Swedish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Russian and other
languages. A polyglot, he has translated poems for many languages,
including Turkish, Persian, Spanish, English, Polish, Swedish, Russian
and Old Icelandic. His current project is translation of the Koran and
the Old Testament from Hebrew and Arabic into Latvian. His awards
include the Literary Award of the Baltic Assembly (1995) and Order of
the Three Stars (1995).
Leons
Briedis (b. 1949) Founding publisher and editor of the
Latvian philosophical journal, Kentaurs XXI (Centaur XXI)
and Minerva, Ltd. publishing house, he has published almost 20 volumes
of poetry. He writes for both adults and children and translates from
Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Catalonian, Latin, Swahili, Russian,
English and others. His international literary prizes include one from
the Writers' Union of Romania (1991) and the Order of the Three Stars
from Latvia (1999). 
Ronalds Briedis
(b. 1980) Poet and critic, he has published one volume
of poetry (2004) which received the best poetic debut award. He manages
literary projects for the Writers' Union of Latvia. 
Jānis Elsbergs (b. 1969) Poet and
translator, his first two volumes were published under the pen name
Jānis Ramba. Translator of Shakespeare's Cymbeline, Harold Pinter,
Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Walt Whitman, Charles Bukowski and
American Beat poets such as Gregory Corso and Gary Snyder. His book,
Rīta kafija (Morning Coffee)(1996) shows the Beat
influence. He has been co-editor of major Latvian literary journals,
including Karogs and Luna and head of the Young Authors'
Association. 
Klāvs Elsbergs
(b.1959; d. 1987) Poet and translator, he published two volumes of his
poetry and one was published posthumously. A major translator of French
poetry including a collection of poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. A
leading poet of his generation, he was one of the founding editors of
Avots, an influential intellectual monthly that introduced avant
garde and politically charged subjects during the period of Glasnost.
Inga Gaile (b.1976) Winner of the Klāvs
Elsbergs First Book Award (1999) and the Ojārs Vācietis Award
(2004) for her second volume. She also translates from Russian the
poetry of the Riga-based Orbita group. 
Astrīde Ivaska
(b. 1926) Poet and professor. Author of 6 volumes of poetry in Latvian,
she recently returned to Latvia after many years abroad. In the United
States she taught at Oklahoma University and St. Olaf's College and was
a reviewer for World Literature Today. Inara Cedrins' English
translations of Ivaska's selected poetry appeared in two volumes in the
US. 
Juris
Kronbergs (b. 1946) Born in Sweden of Latvian parents,
he is an important figure in Latvian poetry and actively promotes
Latvian literature in Sweden, translating dainas (folksongs), and
Belševica, Skujenieks, Ziedonis and others authors into Swedish. First
published in the mid-1960s, his recent collection Vilks vienacis (Wolf
One-Eye) was published bilingually in Latvian and Swedish. His awards
include the Ojārs Vācietis award (1988) and the Order of the
Three Stars (1998). 
Liāna
Langa (b. 1960) Former director of the Latvian National
Council of Culture, she began to publish in 1988, winning Latvian
National Literary Awards for two books, Te debesis, te
ciparnīca (NowHeaven, Now an Hourglass) (1997) and
Iepūt taurītē, Skorpion! (BlowYour Horn,
Scorpion!, 2001). She translates from Russian and English and has
studied literature at the New School in New York. Her legal name is
Liāna Bokša. 
Edvīns
Raups (b. 1962) Poetry editor of the cultural weekly,
Kultūras Forums, he has published four volumes of poetry in Latvia
and translated many Latin American and Spanish authors. First published
in 1986, his awards include the Klāvs Elsbergs First Book Award (1991)
and the Rainis and Aspazija Foundation Prize (1995), the Fortech
Literature Award (1998) and the “Preses nams” Award for his
fourth collection, Uzvāri man kaut ko pārejošu
(Cook Up Something Transitory for Me). His poetry is widely
translated. His birth name is Edvīns Struka.
Jānis Rokpelnis
(b. 1945) Poet, essayist and script writer. First published in 1968, he
has subsequently won the Baltic Assembly Literary Prize (2000) and the
Aleksandars Čaks Award (2001). His work has been translated into
more than 20 languages, and he translates primarily from Russian.
Formerly a Senior Research Associate at the Riga Museum of Art, he has
been an editor of several periodicals, including Karogs. Currently
he is writing a biography of Knuts Skujenieks.
Māris Salējs (b. 1971) A poet, critic and
translator, primarily from Polish, Ukrainian and Russian, he was first
published in 1994. His awards include the Anna Dagda Award (2001) for
his second volume of poetry. An editor at Luna, a literary
journal, and co-editor for the Latvian feature in Howling Dog Press
internet journal, Omega, he is a librarian at the Academy of
Culture in Riga. His birth name is Marians Rižijs. 
Knuts Skujenieks (b. 1936) A poet and
translator, he is considered one of the finest Latvian poets. In 1962 in
Soviet-Latvia, he was sentenced to seven years in a hard labor camp in
Mordova, Russia for high treason, a charge resulting from meetings with
other young dissident intellectuals. Although he began writing poetry as
early as the 1950s, his books did not appear until 1978 and poems
written in the labor camp were published in the 1990s, after Latvian
independence. His eight-volume collected works is published by Nordik
Publishers. He translates from many languages, including the folksongs
of most European countries. Among his numerous awards are the Tomas
Transtromer Prize (Sweden, 1998), the Order of the Three Stars (Latvia,
1995) and for his translations, Commander of the Catholic Order of
Isabel (Spain, 1994) and the Gedimino Order (Lithuania, 2001). 
Kārlis
Vērdiņš (b. 1979) Poet, critic and
translator. He has published translations of William Carlos Williams,
H. D., Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot. His two collections of poetry
are Ledlauzi (Icebreakers) (2001) and Biezpiens ar krejumu (Cottage Cheese with Cream) (2004). 
Māra
Zālīte (b. 1952) Born in Siberia where her
parents had been deported by the Soviets, she returned to Latvia in
1956. A poet, essayist, playwright, and librettist for opera and rock
musicals, she has been editor-in-chief of Karogs and was the
director of the National Language Commission in Latvia. She is presently
president of the copyright agency AKKA/LAA. Her rock opera
Lacplesis (Bearslayer) (1988) was one of the mobilizing
forces in the “Singing Rebellion” that led to Latvia's renewed
independence. Her awards include The Order of Three Stars (1995), the
Mayakovsky Award (1982), the Aspazija Award (1992) and the Herder Award
(Germany, 1993). Sun Stroke in the Dark, Margita Gailitis'
English translation of Zālīte's selected poems, was recently
published by Atena (2005). 
Inese
Zandere (b. 1958) Poet, children's author and the
editor of the monthly magazine, Rigas Laiks. Her 3 volumes of
poetry include Melnās čūskas maiznica (The
Black Snake's Bakery) which collects her poems from the past fifteen
years; it received the Latvian Poetry Prize (2003). 
Imants
Ziedonis (b. 1933) A prolific poet, his poetry is
widely translated; Flowers of Ice, translated by Barry Callaghan,
was published in Canada. He has published almost
twenty volumes of poetry in Latvia. A formative thinker on Latvian
culture, he writes non-fiction about rural Latvian life and culture as
well as tales for children for which he received the Hans Christian
Anderson Award (Denmark). Among his many awards is The Order of the
Three Stars (1995). A deputy in the Latvian Parliament in the 1990s, he
has held numerous significant cultural positions. 
Pēteris
Zirnītis
(b. 1944; d. 2001) Poet, publisher, former Director of the
Latvian Museum of Literature and Art History and Vice President of
Latvian PEN. He has published seven volumes of poetry. As founding publisher
of Nordik, he has focused on publishing translations of poetry. 
Margita Gailitis was born in Riga, Latvia, and
is a writer, poet and translator. She left Latvia as a small child and
after several years spent in displaced persons camps in Germany,
immigrated with her mother and two sisters to Canada. She has travelled
extensively and has lived for extended periods of time in the U.S.,
Jamaica, Italy and Spain. In 1998 she returned to Latvia to work at the
Translation and Terminology Centre in Riga on a Canadian International
Development Agency sponsored project translating Latvian laws into
English— a prerequisite for Latvia's accession to the EU. Having
spent her professional life in Canada working in advertising and
marketing, she also assumed marketing and PR responsibilities for the
Translation Centre. Now Margita Gailitis concentrates her efforts on
literary translation and her poetry, which she writes in both Latvian
and English. She has translated some of Latvia's finest poetry and prose
and been instrumental in organizing publishing opportunities for Latvian
writers in Canada, U.S., Spain and elsewhere. Her poetry has been
published in various periodicals and has been awarded both Ontario and
Canada Council grants. Her poems have been published in a book
“Freedom Half Blind”.
Inguna Jansone (b. 1963) Poet and translator, her major translations include Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Brautigan and Fay Weldon. Her second poetry collection, Sampuns ar balzamu (Shampoo and Balsam), was awarded the Anna Dagda Award (1998).
Ieva
Lešinska (b.1958) is an editor, journalist, poet
and translator living and working in Riga, Latvia. Once a culture editor
for Radio Free Europe in Munich, since 1993 Ms. Lesinska has been on the
editorial staff at the magazine Rigas Laiks and also holds a
full-time position as English language editor at the central bank of
Latvia. She has received special notice for her translations
of Anglo American poets into Latvian, including T.S. Eliot's The
Waste Land, Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish, as well as selected
poems by Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, D. H. Lawrence, Ezra Pound, Dylan
Thomas, and others. Her original poetry has appeared in Latvian
periodicals and anthologies. She is currently working on a book of
“documentary fiction”. In this issue, she has translated
Berzins, Gaile, and Zandere.
Ilze Klavina-Mueller , a native of Latvia, divides her time between translation and poetry. Her translations of the work of Vizma Belševica include poems and selections from Belševica's memoir Bille, published in in The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Spring 1998). Her poems have appeared in Looking For Home: Women Writing About Exile, CALYX, Water~Stone and other journals. She is a member of The Laurel Writers Collective, a group of writers and graphic artists living in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area.
Māra Rozītis (b. 1952) Born in
Australia and currently living in Stockholm, she is an actress, theater
director, playwright. She translates a number of Latvian poets into
English, including Kronbergs and Belševica.
Inara Cedrins' first anthology of contemporary Latvian poetry was published by the University of Iowa Press in 1981; her chapbook of translations of the poetry of Astrid Ivask, At the Fallow's Edge, was a Small Press Book of the Month Club selection and went into a second edition. She previously edited an issue of the online magazine Omega featuring Latvian poets (accessible at www.howlingdogpress.com). Her poems, stories and translations from the Latvian have appeared in The North American Review, Chelsea, Prairie Schooner, The Portland Int'l. Review, The Ledge, The Minnesota Review, Translation/Columbia University, the Massachusetts Review, Kansas Quarterly, The Atlanta Review, New Letters and The Chariton Review, among others.
Co-Editor:
J.C.
Todd's poems and translations have appeared in the
anthology Shade 2004, and in The Paris Review, APR,
RUNES, Crab Orchard Review and other journals as well as
on-line in Verse Daily. Pine Press published her chapbooks:
Nightshade (1995) and Entering Pisces (1985).
Awards include a fellowship in poetry from the Pennsylvania Council on
the Arts, two awards from The Leeway Foundation, a Virginia Center for
the Creative Arts international artist exchange fellowship to the
Schloss Wiepersdorf colony in Germany and a scholarship to the Baltic
Center for Writers and Translators in Sweden.
She has previously edited a feature on contemporary Lithuanian poetry
for TDB and was guest poetry editor for the Summer 2005 issue of
The Bucks Country Review.
A lecturer in Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College in the spring of
2006, she has an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson
College.
