Eva Eglāja-Kristsone

Eva Eglāja-Kristsone, literary critic, head of the vortal Literatura.lv, Director of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia. Her research interests are related to both the research of the Cold War period and the impact of political processes on literary life and creativity, the monograph "Iron Cutters. Contacts between Latvian and Western Exile Writers" received the Latvian Literature Award in 2015 and literary culture, female activism, writing and autobiographical genres. She has participated in and initiated several creative projects, such as the exhibition "Aftersound. Popular Culture at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Latvia", the cycle of events dedicated to E. Treimanis-Zvārgulis "Zvārgulis’ Festival", cultural-historical platform #Grosvaldi, compiled and introduced the short story collection The Book of Riga "(Comma Press, 2018).  At the writers' residence she will write an introduction to the anthology of Latvian women's prose in English (Dedalus, 2022).

Kevin M. F. Platt

(photo credit Arkady Dragomoshchenko)
A translator of Russian and Latvian poetry, including poems by Uldis Bērziņš and Dmitry Kuzmin, as well as works of the Riga-based Orbita group, comprised of Semen Khanin, Artur Punte, Vladimir Svetlov, Sergej Timofejev. His additional translations include poetry, essays and dramatic etudes by Aleksandr Skidan, Arkady Dragomoshchenko, Dmitry Golynko, Ekaterina Simonova, Shamshad Abdullaev, Galina Rymbu, Keti Chukhrov and others. Platt is the editor and lead translator for Hit Parade: The Orbita Group (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2015) and co-editor with Polina Barskova of a volume in preparation of poetry by Kuzmin. He is also founder and convener of the Your Language My Ear poetry translation symposium (https://web.sas.upenn.edu/yourlanguagemyear/). Platt is Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia.

Ieva Samauska

Ieva Samauska studied journalism at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Latvia and worked for ten years in the magazine "Ieva", when she also started writing her first works. In 2004, her first book, “Between Two Heartbeats”, was published, the only one for an adult audience. All the other 27 books published so far are written for children. They have been nominated several times for the J. Baltvilka International Prize in Literature, as well as received recognition in the evaluation of the Children's Jury.

Jayde Will

Evija Gulbe

Sandra Ratniece

(photo by Toms Ratnieks)

Literary scholar, literary critic, poet, born in 1969, in Riga. In 2011 she obtained a doctoral degree in philology, defending her doctoral dissertation “Features of Art Nouveau Poetics in Latvian Literature in the Period from the 20th Century till beginning of the First World War”. Sandra Ratniece is a member of the board of the Latvian Writers' Union, a member of the Aleksandr Čaks Society and the Riga Latvian Society, as well as actively involved in other cultural, especially literary processes. She is the leader of the youth literary seminar "Aicinājums", lecturer, created and directed the LRS monthly "CONTEXT". In 2020, her poetry debut collection "Seemingly Quiet" was published. Currently, Sandra Ratniece is working on preparing a doctoral thesis for publication, as well as creating poems for the second collection of poetry and stories.

Linda Lošina

Linda Lošina (1978) – Children’s book illustrator. She has illustrated seven books written by Evija Gulbe and published by Zvaigzne ABC.
The first illustrated book “Koko and Riko” has received awards in the competition “Zvaigzne’s Books: Original Latvian fiction for children and young adults" (2010) and the reading promotion program "Children’s Jury" (2012). It has three sequels, several colouring work books, and two shows at the Latvian Puppet Theatre. Book series Koko and Riko has received The Copyright Infinity Award in 2019.
Illustrated books:
Koko and Riko (2011), Lilalla and Her Antics (2013), Little Poems (2013), Sister Ladybird (2015), New Adventures of Koko and Riko (2016), Koko and Riko Behave like Angels (2017), Koko and Riko School Stars (2020).

Aiva Birbele

A comedian who writes plays and screenplays. More than ten plays have been written, the best known - "Woman as candy", "Macho", "Cemetery PR", "This is me", as well as scenarios for the series "House by the Lake", "Therapist without a degree" and "Emilija. Queen of the Latvian Press". There is even one book "Golden Grains of Golden Strainer". In her free time, she uses her actress diploma and plays in movies, as well as rages on stage at the Women's Stands show.

Evita Hofmane

I work in the field of project management and public relations. I am a journalist.

In 2017, I graduated from the Prose Workshop of the Literary Academy. I participated in "Prose readings". Short prose publications in the Latvian Writers' Union monthly "KonTEKSTS", in the literature and philosophy online magazine "Punctum", in the collection of articles on culture and free thought "Jaunā Gaita", in the magazine "Domuzīme" and in the supplement "Kultūrzīmes" of the newspaper "Latvijas Avīze".

In 2019, I received the award “White Sparrow” of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports of the Riga City Council for the project “100 books for children” successfully implemented in cooperation with colleagues.

My first collection of stories "Doors" is being prepared by the publishing house "Latvijas Mediji".

I will continue to write a longer prose work in Ventspils.

Kirill Kobrin

Kirill Kobrin (1964) – Russian writer and historian. Born in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), graduated from the local University. PhD in Medieval History. Fourteen years was working as a lecturer at Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical University. Since 2000 Kobrin has lived in Europe. He spent 13 years in Prague as a broadcaster and managing editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Russian Service). At the same time Kobrin continued to work as a professional historian, academic editor and writer: 2000—2006 – he was a member of editorial staff of “Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye” (“New Literary Review”, journal of philology and literary history), since 2006 Kobrin works as an contributing editor of “Neprikosnovenny Zapas” (Emergency Rations, journal of social and cultural anthropology and political theory). Co-founder and co-editor of post(non)fiction art-literary online project (http://postnonfiction.org). Author of 26 books of fiction and non-fiction prose, academic research – and of numerous publications in Russian and European media. His books and essays have been translated into English, Latvian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Chinese. For 18 years Kirill Kobrin had lived in Prague, London, Chengdu and now he lives in Riga.

 Maruta Pranka

Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia and member of the Latvian Association of Oral History Researchers "Life Story". Since 1994 he has been working at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia with research on oral history. Publications in scientific journals, collections of articles in Latvian, Estonian, English, Russian.

Lelde Kovaļova

Author of the novels "Missing" (2019), "Strangers" (2020) and "Highway" (2021). Novels in the detective and thriller genre are published by "Latvijas Mediji". Graduate of the Prose workshop of the "Literary Academy". Studied with Inga Žolude. Based on the motifs of the debut novel, a series has been shot with the participation of outstanding Latvian actors. Master's degree in audiovisual media art.

Plans to start work on the fourth novel.

Rolanda Bula

Rolanda Bula (real name Rolande Bebere). Born on August 16, 1964. Education: Latvian Police Academy. Master's degree in law. She has worked in the State Police in various positions, including as an investigator. Retired from 2014, individual practicing lawyer.

Literary activity:

She started writing at the age of 48.

Six novels have been published: detective novel " Klusēšanas varā " ("Jumava", 2014), satirical novel " Brīvmūrnieka trīs vēlēšanās " ("Zvaigzne ABC", 2015), historical novel "Atkaļceļš" ("Latvian Media", 2018) - 3rd place in the "Lata" novel competition, detective novel "Stopotāju lieta" ("Zvaigzne ABC", 2018), contemporary novel "Upes laiks" ("Latvijas Mediji", 2019, 3rd place in the competition "Evening novels", detective novel "Sīnāja kalna lieta" (“Latvijas Mediji”, 2020).

Member of Tukums Writers' Association, graduated from the Literary Academy (2018).