Māris Čaklais

Who was Māris Čaklais?

Māris Čaklais 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, set to Imants Kalniņš music in the Rolands Kalniņš movie "Elpojiet dziļāk!” and Ferenc Molnár's play "Liliom".

Čaklais worked at the newspapers "Literatūra un Māksla" and "Literatūra un Māksla Latvijā”, 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, the Latvian Annual Literature Award, the Order of the Three Stars, and the Herder Prize.

He died in Riga in 2003.