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New poetry from Latvia published abroad

2020, March 10

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Five collections of poems by Latvian poets translated into English, German, Italian, Georgian and Spanish languages.

Bilingual collection of poems “People like us / Seļļizt nemē mēg”, written by Valts Ernštreits in Livonian and translated into English by Ryan Van Winkle and the author himself, was published by "Francis Boutle Publishers". Livonian is a critically endangered Finnic language as there are fewer than 20 Livonian speakers remaining in the world. Remarkably, three of those speakers are also poets. “In these sometimes political, sometimes personal poems rooted in the Livonian coast, you will find symbols and images important to Livonian culture and venture into the poet’s own borderlands, sometimes dark and turbulent, sometimes calm as the sea on a quiet spring dawn," writes "Francis Boutle Publishers".

The first German translation of an award wining poet, literary critic and translator Arvis Viguls, was published by "Parasitenpresse" and translated by an Austrian poet Astrid Nischkauer under the title “Die Handschrift einer Nadel”. In this poetry collection Arvis Viguls stumbles through life, scratches old wounds, hides under a blanket and washes his father and transforms into a new person.

Written by Sergej Timofejev the collection of poems “Onde lunghe” was translated into Italian by Massimo Maurizio and published by Miraggi Edizioni. Timofejev is one of the members of the multimedia poetry project "Orbita", which is a creative group of poets and artists whose works aim at creating a dialogue between various cultures and genres which include literature, music, video, and photography, among others. “Onde lunghe” is a collection of poems dedicated to water and radio ether. Readers can find alternative versions of reality and tributes to half-forgotten pop icons. According to "Miraggi Edizioni", when you pick up this book, you will “go to the sea, even if you don’t move an inch. Here, where the sea and the mainland meet, rhythms of short prose and poetry lash each other like waves”. Consisting of 60 poems by Sergej Timofejev another poetry collection “TBD”, translated into Georgian by Nene Giorgadze was published by "Nodar Dumbadze Publishing". The preface of this book also introduces readers to artistic activities of "Orbita text group" and sets a specific contextual background of Timofejev’s poetry.

Published by "Valparaíso Ediciones" and translated by Rafael Torres this collection of 86 poems “Poemas” is Semyon Khanin’s first publication in Spanish language. Khanin writes in Russian, translates from the Latvian to Russian, and has edited many collections of poetry. He is also one of the members of the multimedia poetry project "Orbita"

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