L I T E R A T U R E

We feature recent poetry by Anda Līce, Jānis Rokpelnis and Elīna Vendija Rībena and short stories by Egīls Venters, Vilis Kasims, Lāsma Gaitniece, Kristīne Ilziņa and Guna Roze. All are residents of Latvia and were selected for this issue by our literature editor, writer Vladis Spāre.

V I S U A L  A R T

The cover design for this issue is by Wisconsin-based artist Guntis Lauzums. Our art editor Linda Treija describes Lauzums' technique of applying high tech tools to create abstract art from digital photographs.

Elita Ansone, Head of the Collections and Scientific Research Department “Arsenāls” at the Latvian National Museum of Art describes an ongoing exhibit of the art of Daina Dagnija (1937-2019), titled “You paint just like a man!”.

Baiba Magdalena Eglīte, a curator at the Global Center for Latvian Art, introduces ceramicist Vita Valdmane, who lives and works in Cēsis, Latvia. Valdmane makes whimsical comic sculptures of birds and other small creatures.

Photographs of the work of Lauzums, Dagnija, and Valdmane are displayed throughout the issue.

H I S T O R Y

Ieva Šinke, a young resident of Rīga, shares thoughts and emotions on reading an apparently unpublished memoir by sculptor Zigfrīds Sapietis (1924-2014), in English. Titled The Pines of Bikernieki, it is the story of Sapietis' year of imprisonment under Nazi occupation, 1942-1943. Šinke intends to translate it back to the original Latvian.

Tirzmaliete was the nom de plume of Minna Dzelzkalne (1876-1942), a writer whose patriotic lyrics still galvanize Latvians in song. Normunds Treijs, who has been involved in historical and cultural research in Latvia since 1984, writes about Tirzmaliete's career and cultural significance.

Pēteris Korsaks, having recently helped organize the publication of Sirmā stunda (Gray Hour) the poetry of Veronika Tenča-Goldmane (1928-2019), shares some of her poems reflecting on her imprisonment in a forced labor camp beyond the polar circle in Norilsk, Russia from 1948 to 1957.

Ilja Marija Boļšakovs, a lecturer at the Baltic International Academy in Rīga, describes a harrowing experience in the summer of 1995, while serving as a medical assistant in the Latvian army shortly after the withdrawal of occupying Russian troops – reflecting the chaotic state of military and medical affairs in newly reestablished free Latvia.

A B O U T   B O O K S

Eva Mārtuža: Maija Migla-Streiča. Matildes gadsimts (Mathilda’s Century), a documentary family saga.

Anda Ogriņa: Ilze Jansone. Laika rēķins (An Invoice of Time), a biographical novel about the life of writer Ilze Šķipsna (1928-1981).

Lāsma Gaitniece: Anna Matvejeva. Djatlova pāreja. Deviņu tūristu nāves noslēpums (Dyatlov Pass. The Secret of the Death of Nine Tourists), a translation from the Russian.

Silvija Ģibiete: Kārlis Štamers. Viktora Arāja tiesas prāva (The Court Trial of Viktors Arājs). Arājs (1910-1980) was arrested in 1975 and tried in Hamburg, Germany from 1977 to 1979 for complicity in the slaughter of 13,000 Jews at the time of the Nazi occupation of Latvia. He was then a commander of the Latvian Auxiliary Police, subordinated to the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD).

Gundega Zēhausa (Seehaus): Andris Zeibots. Lēngaitis (Slow Motion), a biographical novel involving the Latvian literary couple Zenta Mauriņa (1897-1978) and Konstantins Raudive (1909-1974) ‒ and their contemporaries ‒ in a largely fictional murder mystery.

B R I E F L Y   N O T E D

Members of our editorial staff report news of recent cultural events, including awards, art exhibits and new books published.

I N   M E M O R I A M

Eleanora Šturma, doyenne of the Latvian cultural community in exile, gives homage to the life and art of Normunds Treijs (1931-2021), a master silversmith and professor of art at Hofstra University in New York.

N.B. The author of the article about Tirzmaliete is a distant relation to prof. Treijs, not the same person.