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On Wednesday 5 December I’ll be at the National Poetry Library in the Southbank Centre, London for Poetry for Preservation, discussing the Livonian and Scots languages alongside Livonian poet Valts Ernstreits. We will be discussing how poetry can play a role in the preservation of language and culture, with readings and a Q&A.

The event starts at 8pm, it is free but ticketed, and you can book your place here.

I will be presenting a roundtable panel of Latvian poets writing in the endangered language Livonian, Valt Ernštreit, Baiba Damberg, Ķempi Kārl, at the 2018 AABS Conference at Stanford University.

The Livonians are the southernmost Finnic nation and are indigenous to Latvia. In the beginning of the Middle Ages, Livonian was spoken across vast territories of present-day Latvia around the Gulf of Rīga and including the area of Latvia’s capital – Rīga. The Livonians have contributed greatly to the historical development of the Central Baltic region and the shaping of modern Latvian language and culture. 

Presently, Livonian is critically endangered and is now spoken by just some twenty people. However, several authors actively writing in Livonian can be found among them. The tradition of writing literature in Livonian has existed for almost 200 years with the first poems in Livonian being written in the mid-19th century. The Livonian poets – Valt Ernštreit, Baiba Damberg, Ķempi Kārl – are continuing this tradition today. 

In spring 2018, the bilingual anthology Trillium will be published in English and Livonian featuring the work of these three poets and celebrating the centennial of Latvia’s independence as well as its guest nation status at the London Book Fair. Trillium was edited by Livonian linguist and poet Valts Ernštreits, translated by poet Ryan Van Winkle and linguist Uldis Balodis, with its design created by well-known Latvian book artist Zane Ernštreite.

The round table will introduce its participants to Livonian history from ancient to modern times as well as present Trillium along with readings of poems in both Livonian and English by its authors and translators. This will also be an opportunity to discuss new perspectives for Livonian language and literature.

Short Bio

Valts Ernštreits
Livonian linguist and culture worker. Ernštreits defended his PhD on the Livonian literary language and is currently involved in the writing of the first ever Livonian reference grammar at the University of Tartu. He is the head of Līvõ kultūr sidām (Livonian Culture Centre, 1994) dedicated to the safeguarding, study, and development of Livonian language and culture. He is also chief editor of the Livonian history, language, and culture portal Livones.net. A poet writing in Livonian and Latvian, translator, and visual artist, Ernštreits has received Norwegian, Estonian, Finnish, and Latvian state decorations. 

Karl Pajusalu 
Professor of Estonian dialectology and the history of the Estonian language at the University of Tartu, member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, and foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. He has studied the historical formation of the Southern Finnic languages, incl. Salaca Livonian, and Estonian and Livonian dialect contacts. He created an orthography for Salaca Livonian, which he has used in his Salaca Livonian poetry volumes.

Uldis Balodis
Latvian linguist and translator. Balodis works with the Finnic languages of Latvia and the Native languages of North America. He has had a personal and professional interest in Livonian for over 20 years. Since 2013, he has studied the historically South Estonian-speaking Lutsi people of Latgale (eastern Latvia). He is currently writing a Lutsi language primer and a volume supported by the AABS Baumanis Grant on the historical Lutsi villages and their inhabitants. Balodis published his dissertation, a reference grammar of the Northern California Yuki language, in 2016.

Gunta Kļava
Latvian linguist, Latvian Language Agency, University of Latvia. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, language policy, and language contacts. She is an author and editor of research into language policy in Latvia. Her responsibilities at the Latvian Language Agency also include support for Livonian language development projects and activities.

When Latvia Met Scotland

On Wednesday 23 May, 7pm, I will be reading at the Scottish Poetry Library with Latvian poets Katrīna Rudzīte, Henriks Zēgners, Inga Pizāne, and Eduards Eipurs, Scottish poets Katherine Sowerby and William Letford, and Welsh poet Llyr Gwyn Lewis. This event is produced in partnership with Latvian Literature platform, which is promoting recognition of Latvian literature and its distribution abroad, ensuring international cooperation among publishers, literary agents, writers and translators. Both Latvian Literature platform and SPL are members of Literature Across Frontiers (LAF).

International Simmer: Latvia meets Scotland

On Thursday 24 May, 7.30pm, I will be joined at the Edinburgh Food Studio by Latvian poets Katrīna Rudzīte, Henriks Zēgners, Inga Pizāne, and Eduards Eipurs, Scottish poets Katherine Sowerby and William Letford, Welsh poet Llyr Gwyn Lewis, and Latvian chef Raivo Behmanis.

Our unique collaboration series between food & poetry uses flavour, scent, and colour in response to poems. In this edition we bring an international flavour and welcome a Latvian chef to our kitchen and four distinct Latvian voices and their Scottish / Welsh translators. 

This event has been generously supported by Latvian Literature which works internationally to support Latvian literature abroad.

There will be screenings of The Good Dark, made by Lucas Chih-Peng Kao, in Edinburgh and Stirling over the next fortnight. First in Edinburgh at the Cameo Cinema, 7pm, Thursday 19 April, and in the Mediterranea Restaurant, Stirling, 7pm, Thursday 26 April. The screenings are part of the unDependence Film Festival, and you can read their whole programme here.

A poet wanders through a desolate house and sees the reanimated lives of Jim and Flo, the previous tenants. As the poet recites his poem, bringing the worlds of the past, present and imagination closer, the couple struggle to grasp the last breath of their relationship.

I’ll be reading alongside Richard Scott, Tessa Berring, Sarah Bernstein and Andy Spragg at the SWG3 Poetry Club, 100 Eastvale Place, Glasgow, on Sunday 6 May, 6.30-9.30pm.

Hope to see you there.

As part of Glasgow International.

Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His poems have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies including Poetry Review, Poetry London, PN Review, Swimmers, The Poetry of Sex (Penguin) and Butt Magazine. He has been a winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize, a Jerwood/Arvon Poetry Mentee and a member of the Aldeburgh 8. His pamphlet Wound (Rialto) won the Michael Marks Poetry Award 2016 and his poem ‘crocodile’ won the 2017 Poetry London Competition. Soho (Faber & Faber) is his first book.

Tessa Berring is a writer and artist based in Edinburgh. Her poetry can be found or is forthcoming in a variety of journals/anthologies including The Rialto, Adjacent Pineapple, House of Three Press, Pitymilk Press, 3:AM Magazine (with Kathrine Sowerby), and Datableedzine. In 2017 she wrote for two visual art projects, ‘Narrative’, and ‘Carnevale’ in connection withEdinburgh College of Art. Her pamphlet ‘Cut Glass and No Flowers’ is available from Dancing Girl Press.

Sarah Bernstein is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh, where she is working on a project called ‘Difficult Women & the Common Good’. Her writing has appeared in places like Adjacent Pineapple, tender, Contemporary Women’s Writing and Lemon Hound, and her first book, Now Comes the Lightning, was published in Canada by Pedlar Press in 2015. Her work in progress is called The Coming Bad Days.

RYAN VAN WINKLE is a poet, editor and live artist living in Edinburgh. His second collection, The Good Dark, won the Saltire Society’s 2015 Poetry Book of the Year award.His poems have appeared in New Writing Scotland, The Prairie Schooner and The American Poetry Review.As a member of Highlight Arts he has organized festivals and translation workshops in Syria, Pakistan and Iraq. He was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson fellowship in 2012 and the Jessie Kesson fellowship at Moniack Mhor in 2018. www.ryanvanwinkle.com

I’m very grateful to have been selected for this year’s Jessie Kesson Fellowship. I’ll be in the cottage at Moniack Mhor for a month, hosting a weekly drop-in workshop on Wednesday 7, 14 and 21 March, 6-8pm.

The workshops will be fun, lively & accessible, for anyone interested in reading or writing poetry. We’ll read a handful of poems and discuss them, with a focus on feeling comfortable talking about poetry.

I’ll be reading this Thursday 16 November, 6.30pm at Golden Hare Books‘ poetry series Hear Hare Here, alongside Jonathan Bay and Rachel Rankin, hosted by Golden Hare’s own poet and bookseller Alice Tarbuck. Tickets are £5, hope to see you there.

Ryan Van Winkle is a poet, editor and live artist living in Edinburgh. His second collection, The Good Dark, won the Saltire Society’s 2015 Poetry Book of the Year award. His poems have appeared in New Writing Scotland, The Prairie Schooner and The American Poetry Review. As a member of Highlight Arts he has organised festivals and translation workshops in Syria, Pakistan and Iraq. He was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson fellowship in 2012 and a residency at The Studios of Key West in 2016. www.ryanvanwinkle.com

Jonathan Bay, a Creative Writing PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. He has been published in The Inkwell, Hearts and Minds, Gutter and most recently won the Jupiter Artland Inspired to Write competition. He enjoys travelling.

Rachel Rankin is a poet from Coatbridge who currently lives in Edinburgh, where she is a student on the MSc Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She has had both poetry and book reviews published in a variety of journals , including Gutter, Antiphon, The Riveter and on the Scottish Review of Books’ website following her participation in their inaugural Emerging Critics Mentoring Programme. Rachel was shortlisted for the annual Jane Martin Poetry Prize organised by Girton College at the University of Cambridge in 2017 and is a recipient of a Dewar Arts Award, which is being used to fund her postgraduate studies. As well as this, Rachel has performed her work and competed in competitions both nationally and internationally. You can find her on Twitter at @rakelrank.

This Friday 17 Novemeber, Claire Askew, Jo Clifford, Christine De Luca and Harry Giles will give readings matched with four dishes in collaboration with Edinburgh Food Studio, for the newest installment of the Simmer reading and dining series.

The dinner costs £45 per person, with an optional drinks pairing of £35 with drinks chosen to match the menu, and, of course, the poems. Dinner is served at 8pm and guests are welcomed to join us from 7:30pm onwards. You can book your tickets here.

Photo by  Sally Jubb Photography

Photo by Rich Dyson