L I T E R A T U R E

• Poetry offerings are from Dagnija Dreika, Aivars Krūkliņš, Dita Putniņa, Aija Rozena and Kristers Bērzs. 

• Prose offerings are from Andra Manfelde, Ēriks Kūlis, Elīna Kokarēviča, Linda Tīmane, Gvido Drage & Tatjana Zaharova, Uldis Ozolants, Evelīna Stiene, Lelde Logina and Līga Rimša.

 

T R A N S L A T I O N S

• Jānis Elsbergs puts into Latvian ten poems by the Lithuanian poet Antanas A. Jonynas, taken from his book Naujieji sonetai (New Sonets).

• Dainis Deigelis translates poems by the Belorussian poet Maria Malinovskaya from her 2024 book Линия бегства (Line of Escape).

• Sergejs Moreino offers, in Latvian, three “little chapters” from a book by the Russian writer Roman Mikhailov.

 

R E M E M B R A N C E S

• Maija Migla Streiča tells a funny story of how the movie director Jānis Streičs once, on a train with his brother Ēriks (her husband), bamboozled the ticket controllers.

 

H I S T O R Y

• At the end of World War II, some 12,000 soldiers of the Latvian Legion were encamped for nine months in Zedelgem, Belgium as prisoners of war. Historian Jānis Zālītis writes about the work done by one of them, Roberts Zuļģis, to document the ordeal, and about the origins of the legionnaires’ unofficial “hymn” about a girl with a blue scarf.

 

T H E A T E R

• Theater critic Atis Rozentāls reports on his impressions from the 2025 annual competition among Latvian amateur theaters, including productions of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, Jean Anouilh’s l’Orchestre, Gerald Sibleiras’ Le Vent des Peupliers, Bertold Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Branislav Nušić’s The Cabinet Minister’s Wife, Marc Camoletti’s Pyjama Pour Six, and Edīte Neimane’s Memory glimpses in Colors (about Frida Kahlo) – all, of course, in Latvian.

 

V I S U A L   A R T

• In words and in pictures, art editor Linda Treija presents the art of painter Jānis Sanders, a Latvian New Englander, who takes a modernistic palette to the scenery of the Atlantic seaboard from the dunes of Cape Cod to rock-bound coast of Maine.

 

B O O K   R E V I E W S

• Viesturs Vecgrāvis reviews Piezīmes. Rūgtā maize (Commentaries. Bitter Bread), writings by Valters Nollendorfs 1975-1985.

• Eva Mārtuža reviews two books: Četr­desmit burkas gurķu (Forty Jars of Pickles) by Evija Martukāne and Manas demences hronika (A Chronicle of My Dementia) by Roalds Dobrovenskis.

• Lāsma Gaitniece reviews Aizliegtais grā­matu klubs (Forbidden Book Club), a novel by Linda Nemiera.

• Marika Aņisko reviews Arno Jundze’s two novels Es nemiršu nekad (I Will Never Die) and Kārļa grāmata (Karlis’ Book), about the life of the nineteenth century poet Eduards Veidenbaums and his brother Kārlis.

• Kristīne Ilziņa reviews Tēvs (Father) a biographical novel about her own family by Inga Žolūde.

• Kristaps Vecgrāvis reviews Ideālā pilsēta (The Ideal City), poetry by Eriks Naivo.

• Jānis Zālītis: Apgaismības starpnieki. Vāc-baltiešu mācītāji latviešu rakstniecībā 1815-1848 (Agents of the Enlightenment. German Pastors in Latvian Literature 1815-1848).

 

I N   M E M O R I A M

• Sandra Ratniece Mourns the passing of writer / translator / artist Lilija Berzinska (1978-2026)