The Poetry Days Award has been an important honour for many years and the Latvian Writers’ Union has been its originator at every stage of its history.
The winner of The Poetry Days Award will be announced at the closing ceremony of the Poetry Festival on 13 September at 3 PM in the National Library of Latvia.
Following the restoration of Latvia’s independence, the Poetry Days Award was reborn in 1996 and was an annual part of the Poetry Days events until 2009. Beginning in 2003, collections of translated poetry were also included in this competition along with original poetry. The award was overseen between 2010 and 2015 by the magazine “Latvju Teksti” (Latvian Texts).
In Spring 2018, the Latvian Writers’ Union’s newly created Poetry Days Council decided to revive this important Poetry Days tradition and recognise the best collection of original or translated poetry with this award. Poetry collections published during the period between Poetry Days celebrations (from August of one year to August of the following year) are eligible. Funds were also secured so that a 1000 EUR monetary award could be given to the winner of the Poetry Days Award.
Nominees for the 2019 Poetry Days Award
Five poetry collections (published between 1 August 2018 and 1 August 2019) have been nominated for the 2019 award. The winner of the award will be selected by secret ballot and the 1000 EUR monetary award will be presented at the Poetry Days “The Night of Classics” event (Klasiķu vakars) on September 13 at 19:00 at the “Koka Rīga” centre (Krāsotāju iela 12, Rīga).
– Jānis Vādons. Klusuma forma (The Shape of Silence; Pētergailis, 2019);
– Aivars Madris. Zonas (Zones; Neputns, 2019);
– Arvis Viguls. Grāmata (The Book; Orbīta, 2018);
– Jeļena Glazova. Алчность / Alkatība. Bilingvāls izdevums. Translated by Arvis Viguls (Greed. A Bilingual edition.; Valters Dakša, 2019);
– Dziesma par manu Sidu. Senspāņu varoņepus. Translated by Uldis Bērziņš (The Song of my Cid. A Classical Spanish heroic epic.; An Neputns, 2019).