Māris Čaklais

Māris Čaklais (16 June 1940 – 13 December 2003) was a Latvian poet, writer, and journalist. Čaklais studied journalism at the University of Latvia until 1964; his first publications appeared in 1960. He translated to Latvian Bertolt Brecht, Paul Celan, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Rainer Maria Rilke, among others. He also wrote the lyrics, which were set to Imants Kalniņš' music in the movie directed by Rolands Kalniņš, Four White Shirts ("Elpojiet dziļāk!” (Breathe Deeper!)) and Ferenc Molnár's play "Liliom". Čaklais worked at the newspapers "Literatūra un Māksla" (Literature and Art) and "Literatūra un Māksla Latvijā” (Literature and Art in Latvia), and for the Radio Free Europe. In 2000, Čaklais was a member of the Latvian delegation to the European writers project Literature Express Europe 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was the editor-in-chief of the literary journal "Karogs". Following re-establishing of Latvian independence in 1990, Čaklais received the Fridtjof Nansen International Award (1994), the Latvian Annual Literature Award (2000), the Order of the Three Stars (2000), and the Herder Prize (2002). He died in Riga in 2003.