Krišjānis Zeļģis

Krišjānis Zeļģis (born 22 July 1985) is a Latvian poet and brewer.

Biography

Krišjānis Zeļģis was born in Talsi in what was then the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, but today is Latvia. After finishing school he studied library science at the University of Latvia and worked as a light technician at the Latvian National Theatre. He has also had a variety of other jobs including picking grapes on a vineyard in France, and working as a builder on a stadium in Mexico. He later studied in the faculty of Geography and Land Sciences at the University of Latvia, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Earth Science. Currently he is a brewer, and co-owner, at the Latvian brewery Malduguns.

His poetry started to be published in different journals and online in 2001. His debut poetry book "Visas tās lietas" ("All Those Things") was published in 2010 and was nominated for a "Diena" annual culture prize and as a best debut in Latvian literature prize. He translated, alongside Ivars Šteinbergs, Aleksandra Meņšikova's poetry anthology "17 dzejoļi" ("17 Poems") from Russian into Latvian. In 2015 a small collection of Zeļģis's poems was published in a limited release of 25 copies under the title "Mīļākie" ("Loved Ones"). His poems have been translated into Russian by both Semjons Haņins and Jeļena Glazova. Zeļģis also writes prose and in 2016 he won a prize at the Latvian Prose Reading Festival for his story "Vectēvs" (Grandfather). He has been featured twice on poetry compilation CDs; on "Dzejas piegrieztne" in 2011 and "Robežstūmējs" in 2013.

Zeļģis's book "Zvēri" has been translated into English as part of the 'Parthian Baltic' project. It was released under the title "Beasts" in April 2018. The same year "Zvēri" was also translated into Catalan. It was released under the title "Bèsties" in December 2018

In 2016 Zeļģis also worked as a visual artist on the "Omega 3" exhibition in Mooste, Estonia.