Ingmāra Balode

Ingmāra Balode (born 1981) is a Latvian poet and translator. She has been an editor of the ¼Satori web-magazine, a writer for the contemporary art centre "kim?", content creator for a weekly poetry segment Bronchitis/Bronhīts at NABA radio, and has been actively involved in Prose readings both as an organiser and a participant. Her first poems, short stories and articles were published in the 1990s. Her first collection of poems Hard Candy that Can Cut Your Tongue came out in 2007. Her second collection alba (2012) was also widely received and well reviewed by her contemporaries. Her poetry has been translated into English, Swedish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Czech, while she translates fiction mainly from Polish and English, and occasionally translates poetry from Czech, Slovakian and Russian. Some of her most successful translations have been To Outwit God (2005) by the polish writer Hanna Krall, Neil Gaimen's Neverwhere (2005), and Dorota Masłowska's Polish-Russian War under White-Red Flag (2007), et al. Her involvement in international literary events has so far been very successful – Balode has attended international conventions for translators, and important creative events such as the Prague International Poetry Festival. She is also a member of the Latvian Writers' Union. Poet Maira Asare, when describing her collection alba expressed an impression that deep layers of European culture exist both in the poetic, and human experiences of the author, that add stability and steadiness even at times when the author's voice comes across as vulnerable and unshielded.

Dzejoļi pēc mūsu ēras [Poems after our Era]. Riga: Neputns, 2020. 

alba. Riga: Mansards, 2012.

Ledenes, ar kurām var sagriezt mēli [Hard Candy that Can Cut Your Tongue]. Riga: 1/4 Satori, 2007.

Catherine Fortuna. Songs about the end of the world - 12th Miłosz Festival in Krakow // Radio Krakow, July 2023 [PL]

Don't look the Latvian in the eye. Ball of introverts. Anthology of new Latvian poetry // Sirp, January, 2023 [EE]

Literature Festival "In-Between: Baltic States" // Kultur-lettland, September 2021 [GER]

Conversation with Ingmāra Balode // Online magazine Punctum, 2021 [LV]

About Poems after our Era // Online magazine Satori, 2020 [LV]

Interview with Ingmāra Balode // Diena.lv, 2019 [LV]

Inteview with Ingmāra Balode // And Milda gave birth to poet, Riga 2014 [EN]

Interview with Ingmāra Balode // Diena.lv, 2013 [LV]

About Hard Candy that Can Cut Your Tongue // Online magazine Satori, 2012 [LV]

Author's profile // Transpoesie [EN]

Ingmāra Balode, poems// Six Latvian Poets/ Ingmāra Balode, Latvian Poetry Meets Romania [EN]

Sabine Walther. Recommended book: Young poetry from Latvia // sabinewalther-bücher.de,

October 2022 [GER]

Agnieszka Smarzewska. Lights in the fog. Review of the anthology of Latvian poetry "All the birds that are in me..." translated by Olga Wiewióra // Przeglad Baltycki October, 2020 [PL]

Ivars Šteinbergs, Lauzt valodu maigi, review of Poems after our Era // Online magazine Punctum, 2021 [LV]

Edvards Kuks, Klātneesamība, review of Poems after our Era // Online magazine Satori, 2021 [LV]

Katrīna Kuduma, Pateikt vairāk, review of alba // Online magazine Satori, 2012 [LV]

Sintija Kampāne, Neizsmeļamā valdzinājums, review of alba // UbiSunt, University of Latvia, 2012 [LV]

About Six Latvian Poets // Arc Publications, 2011 [EN]

Kārlis Vērdiņš, review of Hard Candy that Can Cut Your Tongue // Diena.lv, 2008 [LV]

2021, shortlisted for the Annual Latvian Literature Award for Poems after our Era

2013, the Annual Latvian Literature Award Best Poetry for alba

2008, the Annual Latvian Literature Award Best Debut for Hard Candy that Can Cut Your Tongue