A selection of works by writer Mudīte Austriņa, “Saules spēles,” has been published

The Publishing House of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art (University of Latvia) has released a collection of works by the writer Mudīte Austriņa, titled “Saules spēles” (“Games of the Sun”). This is the first book by Austriņa published in Latvia, compiled by literary scholar and poet Kārlis Vērdiņš. The book design was created by Klāvs Priedītis.

Mudīte Austriņa (1924–1991) was a poet’s daughter, the goddaughter of the “Fairy-tale King,” the “First Lady” of the Hell’s Kitchen circle of Latvian exile writers in New York, a passionate enthusiast and celebrant, an admirer of Central American indigenous folklore, a connoisseur of literature and art, a devotee of Italy, and an indefatigable traveler to her father’s home in “Kaikaši,” Vecpiebalga. She was also a vivid and unconventional author, a disciple of surrealism, whose extraordinary works, with rare exceptions, remained scattered across periodicals and archives. This volume brings together her prose, surreal “mini-ballets,” lyrical travel notes from visits to Latvia, autobiographical texts, and memoirs about close and significant figures of Latvian culture.

“While preparing for poet Gunars Saliņš’s centenary, as I revisited Hell’s Kitchen materials in the Museum of Literature and Music and in private archives—and as I became more familiar with Mudīte’s literary work—it became clear that her legacy deserves new life: to reveal her talent to 21st-century readers and to highlight its importance not only in the rise of New York’s new Latvian poetry of the 1950s but also in the subsequent renewal of all Latvian exile literature,”
— Kārlis Vērdiņš.

The collection is complemented by Vērdiņš’s foreword and commentary, as well as a memoir by Ilze Auzere, Austriņa’s goddaughter, which paints a portrait of the writer among her family and loved ones.

The book launch will take place on May 19 in Vecpiebalga, at the Antons Austriņš Memorial Museum “Kaikaši” and the Kārlis Skalbe Memorial Museum “Saulrieti”, within the framework of a festival dedicated to Gunars Saliņš and the Hell’s Kitchen literary circle.

Saules spēles, Mudīte Austriņa’s collected works, was published with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation and Ilze Auzere.

Publisher: LU Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art
Price: 12 EUR

The book is available in Latvian bookstores and from the Institute’s publishing house.