Ingmāra Balode | Latvia

(b. 1981 in Riga) –  poet, translator, graduated from the Riga College for Applied Art and the Latvian Academy of Culture. Balode worked as a literary editor for the online portal ¼ Satori (www.satori.lv),  where she regularly published contemporary Latvian poetry and translations of poems in foreign languages. Her own poems, stories and articles first made their way to Latvian cultural magazines in the mid-1990s. Her first book of poetry,  “Ledenes, ar kurām var sagriezt mēli” was published in 2007. Her second collection “alba” (2012) was also well-received by her peers. Both books won annual literary award in the categories: “debut” and “poetry”.  Balode’s poetry has been translated into English, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Polish and Czech. She translates prose from Polish and English and poetry from Czech, Slovakian and Russian. So far, her most significant translations into Latvian are Dorota Masłowska’s “Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną” ( “White and Red”, 2007) and Hanna Krall’s “Zdażyć przed Panem Bogiem” ( “Shielding the Flame”, 2005). Her translations of poems by Adam Zagajewski and E.E Cummings appeared in Latvian cultural magazines. Aside from her works as editor and translator, she also hosts the cyclical poetry programme  Bronhītsw in the Latvian radio Naba. In 2004 and 2005, she helped organise the annual Prose Readings. She’s a member of Latvian Writers’ Union and has taken part in various international literary events, including The World Congress of Translators of Polish Literature, and the International Poetry Festival in Prague. In 2010 she was awarded the Prize for Poetry in Translation by the Latvian literary magazine  “Latvju Teksti”  for translating selected poems by the Polish poet Adam Zaajewski and compiling them in the book “Svešā skaistumā”.