Vizma Belševica was a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n poetess, writer and translator. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

.

Biography

Belševica's father Jānis Belševics was a worker, but her mother Ieva Belševica (maiden name Cīrule) was a housewife. The family was relatively poor, as only one of the two spouses did paid work. Vizma's father had drinking problems, which aggravated when during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 he lost his job as a baker. Vizma Belševica was born on 30 May 1931, in prewar Riga, than the capital of capitalist and democratic Latvia, where she spent most of her childhood. The city often is featured in her works, especially her most famous work—autobiographic trilogy "BILLE"—, but the time spent in Courland

Courland

Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...

, on her relatives' small farm has also important role in her poetry and writings. Her son Klāvs Elsbergs

Klāvs Elsbergs

Klāvs Elsbergs was a Latvian poet and translator. He was the son of a famous Latvian poetess Vizma Belševica.- Biography :...

 was a famous Latvian poet in the 1980s and her second son Jānis is a writer as well.

Recognition

Receiving the Nobel prize was her childhood dream; she, as a poor but bright girl, spent much of her time reading classical literature. Belševica's work has been recognised: on December 6, 1990, she was elected honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

Latvian Academy of Sciences

The Academy of Sciences is the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences . It is located in Riga...

; she has twice received the Spidola Award, which is the highest recognition in Latvian literature. Belševica has also received the highest award of the Latvian State, namely the Three Star Order.

Works

Vizma Belševica published her first poems in 1947; her first book of poetry appeared in 1955. Her most notable poetry collections are Jūra deg (The Sea is Burning, 1966), Gadu gredzeni (Annual Rings, 1969), Madarās (In My Lady's Bedstraw, 1976), Kamola tinēja (The Clew Winder, 1981), Dzeltu laiks (Autumn Time, 1987). Her short stories' collections are Ķikuraga stāsti (Stories from Kikurags, 1965), Nelaime mājās (Misfortune at Home, 1979), Lauztā sirds uz goda dēļa (Broken Heart on the Board of Honour, 1997). During the post-Soviet period, Belševica wrote three semi-autobiographical books - stories about the girl Bille, following her life from the late 1930s, throughout the first year of Soviet occupation of Latvia (1940–41), the Nazi occupation (1941–45), and the first post-war years under Stalin's regime: Bille (Bille, 1992, 95), Bille un karš (initial title: Bille dzīvo tālāk) (Bille and War, 1996), Billes skaistā jaunība (The Wonderful Youth of Bille, 1999) - this trilogy has been recognized as one of the most important works of Latvian literature of all times.

Belševica's poetry and fiction has been translated in about 40 languages. Within the Soviet Union of the 1960s-1980s, several books of her selected poetry were published in Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, Belarusian

Belarusian language

The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...

 and Armenian

Armenian language

The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

. From the 1980s onwards, Belševica has been regularly present on the Swedish literary scene, (translator Juris Kronbergs

Juris Kronbergs

Juris Kronbergs is a Latvian-Swedish poet and translator, living in Stockholm.In Latvia, he is best known for his poetry, written in Latvian. His most acknowledged book is Vilks vienacis , which has been published in Swedish, English and Estonian translations. In Sweden, Kronbergs is the most...

), books of her poetry and Bille stories have enjoyed immense critical success and wide readership there. Her Selected Poems have been published also in Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Selected Short Stories - in Russia, Georgia and Germany. The Russian translation of the Bille trilogy has been published in Riga, Latvia.