Four original poems and two cool collections nominated for Poetry Days Award / Article / LSM.lv

The International Poetry Festival “Poetry Days 2020” in Riga will take place from September 4 to 13 and will bring together local poets and coolers, as well as authors from neighboring countries. The slogan of this year’s festival is “Poetry Heals”. At the end of the festival, the Poetry Days Prize will be presented, for which four collections of original poetry and two collections of cool poems have been nominated this year, the organizers of Poetry Days informed.

Poetry Day Award nominated this year:

• Elvir Bloms »Deleted pictures“(Orbit 2020),
• Krišjānis Zeļģa “The presence of beauty“(” Neputns “, 2020),
• Raimonds Ķirķa “Maps“(” Neputns “, 2019),
• Charles Bukowski »Bite“(” Neputns “, 2020) – compiled and cooled from English by Jānis Elsbergs,
• Osipa Mandelstam »Poetry / Stitches“(” Neputns “, 2019) – compiled and cooled from Russian by Einārs Pelšs.

The Poetry Days Award will be presented at the closing event of the Poetry Days at the National Library of Latvia on September 13 this year at 15.00.

The festival will open on September 4 at the Poetry Day Embassy, ​​Art Center “Noass” on the AB dam. More than 30 events are planned in the central program of the festival in Riga – poetry readings and performances, discussions dedicated to poetry and even stands.

This year, the international note in the festival program will be colored by the neighbors from the Baltic States – poets Aistis Žekevičius, Dovile Kuzminskaite, Eugenijs Ališanka from Lithuania and Elo Vīdinga, Trīna Paja and Kristians Haljaks from Estonia.

This year, Poetry Days has not only a new visual identity, but also the festival’s slogan – “Poetry Heals”, which will invite you to look at both this event and poetry as a healing phenomenon for individuals and societies.

“Poetry heals. You may not have experienced it yet, but there is a time when the poem works.

At that moment, loneliness recedes, and you are suddenly together – with the author, others and yourself.

We are trained to chase the results of life, but poetry stops and reminds you – you are not alone, we hear and understand you. Then the built walls collapse, you find yourself clean, honest, vulnerable and beautiful, and the wounds of life can heal. Come and listen, “said Henrik Elias Zegner, a poet and member of the Poetry Days Council, at this year ‘s festival manifesto.

You can get acquainted with the festival program Poetry Day website and Facebook page. Admission to all festival events is free.

Poetry Days are organized by the Latvian Writers’ Union, but supported by the State Cultural Capital Foundation and the Riga City Council Education, Culture and Sports Department, the magazines “Konteksts” and “Domuzīme”, as well as the internet magazine “Satori”.

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