Publishing House The UL ILFA Publishing House publishes a collection of articles and tributes dedicated to the poet Velta Sniķere

In December 2023, marking the 103rd anniversary of the birth of the poet Velta Sniķere and the first anniversary since her passing, the collection of articles and tributes “Pieredze un redzējumi: dzejniecei Veltai Sniķerei – 100” was published. The volume brings together a selection of scholarly studies and tributes presented at the academic and creative conference held on the poet’s centenary.

“The aim of the collection is to show both the enthusiasm and respect with which researchers and contemporaries celebrated the poet’s life, as well as Velta Sniķere’s uniqueness not only in the Latvian but also in the international context,” say the editors of the volume, literary scholars Eva Eglāja-Kristsone and Jānis Oga.

The first part of the collection, “Pieredze” (Experience), consists of articles by researchers from the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (UL ILFA) and other literary scholars. Its authors are Eva Eglāja-Kristsone, Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe, Zita Kārkla, Kārlis Vērdiņš, Sintija Kampāne, Jānis Oga, Anita Rožkalne, Viesturs Vecgrāvis, and Ausma Cimdiņa. From the conference’s second part, “Redzējumi” (Visions), the volume includes creative tributes by Zigmunds Skujiņš, Ingmāra Balode, Nora Ikstena, Agris Krūmiņš, Ivars Šteinbergs, Kārlis Vērdiņš, and Inga Gaile. The book concludes with Kristiāna Kuzmina’s overview of the most extensive publicly accessible collection of the poet’s materials held in Latvian repositories—the Velta Sniķere Collection at the Museum of Literature and Music.

Velta Sniķere (1920–2022) was a poet and yoga teacher. She grew up in independent Latvia and lived in London from 1946 onward. She has been described as an avant-garde, modernist, and surrealist figure in Latvian poetry; Anšlavs Eglītis famously referred to her poetry as incantations. She was a member of Ram Gopal’s Indian dance troupe, actively involved in the International PEN Club and the British League of European Freedom, and was one of the founders of the British Wheel of Yoga. In 2004, she received the Cultural Foundation Award of the World Federation of Free Latvians; in 2007, she was awarded the Order of the Three Stars; and in 2019, she received the Latvian Literature Lifetime Achievement Award.

Edited by: Eva Eglāja-Kristsone, Jānis Oga
Literary editor: Signe Raudive
Cover design: Krišs Salmanis
Publisher: UL ILFA Publishing House

Supported by: State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia

Publisher’s price: €5.00

The book is available in Latvian bookstores, at the Friends’ Room of the National Library of Latvia, and at UL ILFA.